July 18, 2008

In a Valedictory, Spellings Urges Colleges to Change, Lest Others Change Them

Chicago — Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, in one of her final attempts to persuade colleges to improve their performance, told a conference of educators here today that they would face such pressures even after she left office, in six months.

Ms. Spellings, at the conference marking the second anniversary of the final report of her Commission on the Future of Higher Education, again tried to warn colleges that others in government would impose unpalatable conditions on them if they did not make changes themselves.

““In the absence of continued leadership in education,” “others will step in,” the secretary said. “When public demand reaches critical mass, policy makers are compelled to act, whether they’re in the Congress or on state boards or in state legislatures.””

She added, ““I suspect their solutions will likely not be as informed or sophisticated as what you would propose.””

The conference concluded this morning with educators and business leaders seeking agreement, at the urging of the Education Department, on a concrete course of action they can take over the next 18 months to improve the quality and affordability of higher education in the United States. —Paul Basken

Comments

1. Neither the Spellings Commission nor higher education’s comparatively unimaginative response have dealt with the kind of core qualifications, credit, and documentation issues that 46 European countries have been molding anew over the past decade. See (online at www.ihep.org/Research/GlobalPerformance.cfm) “The Bologna Club: What U.S. Higher Education Can Learn from a Decade of European Reconstruction.” You might have an epiphany or two—something certainly missing from the discussion to date. When other countries address issues similar to ours, it’s utter folly not to notice or learn from their experience.

   — Cliff Adelman    Jul 18, 03:43 PM    #

2. Fifteen years ago, many institutions in Europe were deparate to find ways to work with each other — to the point that they actually suggested that if they patterned themselves after US universities, then they could work with each other. They avoided that sort of “extreme” step, but they have put together a workable set of programs that we would do well to examine.

   — Dick Baznik    Jul 18, 04:22 PM    #

3. While I agree that some key reforms are necessary in Higher Education, I did resist any major move forward with the Spellings Commission recommendations. Why? Because of my distrust of anything emanating from this PARTICULAR White House”. When the current leadership leaves office in January, I am sure you will see some good movement, no matter who the new president is.

   — Bill    Jul 18, 05:01 PM    #

4. Academe would be well served to take heed; this is a grim reminder of the threats and inflammatory rhetoric that preceeded the short-sighted development and implementation of “No Child Left Behind” legislation. “Deja vu all over again”? At what point do we acknowledge that politicians are not qualified to make educational policy?

   — Gilda    Jul 18, 05:07 PM    #

5. So, each institution AND higher education associations SHOULD move into problem-solving mode, looking at students’ needs, pertinent literature, and appropriately creative solutions. If we did that, other governance bodies would not need to take the lead in improving higher education.

   — Jo    Jul 18, 05:25 PM    #

6. At what point do we acknowledge that administrators are not qualified to make ed policy? By most relevant metrics (grad rates, prep for careers, etc), higher ed has made negligible if any progress for decades. The only things improving are our salaries (at least for tenure track) and benefits.

   — bill    Jul 18, 05:27 PM    #

7. I.e. “We can do this the hard way, or we can do this the easy way.”
   — Where have we heard this kind of “argument” before? Does this teach us anything? Probably not.

   — Jambontoo    Jul 18, 05:38 PM    #

8. Like it or not, politicians are the people we elect to make policy in all sorts of areas: and telling them they’re unqualified to do so is unlikely to persuade them, or their taxpaying constituencies, that they shouldn’t. The best way to avoid political micromanagement of the kind Gilda rightly apprehends is to conduct our affairs in such a manner as to make it unnecessary—which was, I think, Mrs Spellings’ point.

   — Gustave    Jul 18, 05:43 PM    #

9. It’s hard to take seriously anything this administration has to say about education!

   — NJH    Jul 18, 09:02 PM    #

10. “Improve the quality”: I don’t read about American students desperately trying to matriculate at foreign universities.
    “and affordability”: now that the Stock Market has dropped by 21% (from 14k to 11k), will colleges be allowed to raise their tuitions by a fifth?

    — richard    Jul 18, 09:26 PM    #

11. I would be happy with changes from the effort that Spellings has attempted to initiate, if her own department weren’t imposing solutions in a vacuum. The accrediting agencies and universities provided a set of soliutions to at least one of the Spellings points, but were told to simply go home – the decision was already made. I don’t think I could ever believe that Spellings is intimating that if we change we will be OK, unless we change into her vision of the way we should be operating. It will be a very good day when this administration leaves. No matter what. We do need to change, but we are the only ones who can successfully change it.

    — Robert    Jul 19, 02:39 AM    #

12. Tuition has outpaced inflation — so any talk about raising it is unjustifiable. LOWERING tuition is the only direction such action can take.

    And students aren’t flocking to foreign universities because most students aren’t interested in quaity. They are interested in getting a piece of paper that allows them to interview for jobs. Period.

    — College Administrator    Jul 19, 10:36 AM    #

13. #12 lambasts US universities and students. Read on:
    “US Remains Top Destination for Foreign Students
    By Michael Bowman
    Washington
    13 November 2007

    For decades, the United States has been a magnet for the world’s brightest university students. But the number of foreign students enrolling in U.S. colleges and universities slumped after the terrorist attacks of 2001. Now, U.S. officials say those numbers have rebounded, and America’s educational ties to the world are stronger than ever. From Washington, VOA’s Michael Bowman reports…..
    The last two years have seen a rebound in overall foreign enrollment, a fact trumpeted by Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Karen Hughes at a Washington news conference.

    “The number of international students who came to America to study in academic year 2006-2007 has increased from last year and rebounded to record-setting pre-9/11 levels,” said Hughes. “The number of American students traveling abroad to study is at an all time high.”

    — richard    Jul 19, 01:42 PM    #

14. One positive thing we have seen from the Bush administration is the Spellings Report. We finally had a Secretary who was willing to challenge the status quo in higher education — of course, higher education met the challenge as they often do — “how dare you challenge us?” Accreditation reviews are completed by peers— so just because an institution achieves accreditation does not necessarily mean achievement. So, yep, if you want to see higher education institutions move in any direction, start tying their funding to achievement benchmarks. Some of the supposed “research institutions” with open admission policies will really need to make some changes — particulary as their funding is now tied to the number of students they get in the door, not the defined achievement of these students.

    — comment    Jul 20, 08:12 AM    #

15. “ At what point do we acknowledge that politicians are not qualified to make educational policy?”
    Perhaps just after we acknowledge that educational leaders have not show they are.
    The academy needs to wake up and fix ourselves before someone else does. What other sector of the economy would choose Chemists, Philosophers and Latina Studies Experts as their leaders, and expect them to be experts in Accounting, Engineering and Management?

    — Dan    Jul 20, 08:13 AM    #

16. Personally, I think people who talk about a “crisis” in higher education need to specify what they’re really talking about. The great thing about American higher education is its amazing diversity—the huge spectrum of institutions involved, from small private Orthodox colleges to huge public research universities (and by the way, I don’t mean that as an evolutionary ladder, but a spectrum).

    I wouldn’t trade that for the mostly public systems, neatly organized by central administrative plans and goals, for anything. And I’m pretty liberal, politics wise.

    It’s precisely that diversity that makes America the educational leader it is: everyone can find something here.

    So to speak of the need to “clean up” higher ed seems impossibly broad to me. If we’re really talking about building certain disciplines, say so. If you’re focused on tuition rates at certain types of schools, say so.

    But this broad-brush rhetoric about how “if education leaders” don’t do something the public will address “the crisis” seems a little too glib to me. Our higher ed system has too broad an ecology—and too many wheels—to all be in crisis at the same time, unless we create a media-driven “crisis” in the blogosphere (and here, the centralizing tendencies of the net may prove to be the one thing this diverse community can’t counteract).

    — John Randolph    Jul 20, 08:56 AM    #

17. Keep the federal government out of education. These are the same people that have made the post office what it is today and the same crowd that wants to run health care. Yeah, let’s keep doing the same dumb things over and over again.

    — Jim Patterson    Jul 20, 09:06 AM    #

18. “Higher education” is largely a self-created, self-perpetuating, insular, incestuous and self-regulating world. There is a great deal of mediocrity in this environment. Higher education is particularly susceptible to moving or promoting individuals into positions of authority without giving them the knowledge, experience or training to do an effective job. The arrogance of higher education produces presidents and other administrators who can talk, but do not know how to listen. There is a lack of transparancy and accountability in higher education administration. Many, if not most, trustees and regents are asleep at the wheel. They lack enought credible information and knowledge to fulfill their oversight responsibilities. These problems are the fault of accreditation agencies, boards of trustees, presidents, provosts and other senior administrators. The Bush Administration has been a disaster in many ways, but Margaret Spellings has been courageous and right!

    — Allan    Jul 21, 11:20 AM    #

19. I think I liked her better on 90210.

    — Chad    Jul 22, 04:13 PM    #

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