Measuring Stick - The Chronicle of Higher Education

Colleges' Common Currency Has No Set Value

Despite its importance to calculations of student progress, faculty workload, and financial aid, some argue against a strict standard of academic credit.
New Federal Rule Could Be Costly to For-Profits

Nonstandard academic calendars help some colleges attract working adults as well as maximize their use of federal money.
Chart: One Math Course, Across 11 Colleges
Graph: How a For-Profit Pace Can Increase Student-Loan Debt

6-Year Graduation Rates: a 6-Minute Primer

A quick guide to the good, the bad, and the ugly elements of the federal government’s statistics.
Graduate Deans: Do You Know Where Your Alumni Are?

Universities could serve students better if they had a fuller sense of the careers the students want and the jobs they ultimately find, two deans say.
Assessment of 'Learning Outcomes' Comes to Graduate School

The assessment impulse is spreading to master’s and doctoral programs. In Washington on Wednesday, three grad-school deans gave their views.
Measuring Student Learning: Many Tools

In a new national study, 30 colleges will experiment with using multiple homegrown measures to improve student learning.
A Final Word on the Presidents' Student-Learning Alliance

The director of the Presidents’ Alliance for Excellence in Student Learning and Accountability replies to comments and criticisms that The Chronicle published last week.
The NRC Rankings: Further Thoughts From Stephen Stigler

A prominent critic of the National Research Council’s doctoral-program assessments replies to a recent essay in The Chronicle.