Dear Commons Community,

The U.S. Department of Education has retreated from its controversial plan to create a giant college-ratings system. Instead, by late summer the department is now promising to produce a customizable, consumer-oriented website that won’t include any evaluations of colleges. As reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription required):

“… the new website will contain what one official described as “more data than ever before.” In effect, it will be a ratings system without any ratings.

The as-yet-unnamed new system will allow students and others to compare colleges “on whatever measures are important to them,” said Jamienne S. Studley, deputy under secretary of education.

The proposed federal ratings have been contentious since the moment they were announced. In Congress, Republicans in particular have introduced measures to keep the department from spending money to develop them. And many college leaders and higher-education associations have questioned the department’s capacity to devise an accurate or fair system.”

I think this was a good move on the part of the U.S. DOE.  American higher education does not need a ratings system especially one that would be left to the whims of a federal agency.

Tony