How do we evaluate the value of a college education?

The thought-provoking subject of NPR's Talk of the Nation radio program today was an all-too-brief exploration of the challenge of using standardized tests to measure college student outcomes, which we presume are indicators of academic quality. The three guests on the program discussed the difficulty of designing tests to measure qualities like critical thinking skills, communication skills, and reasoning skills.

The discussion echoed concerns I often feel as I study the topic of higher education academic quality. As I listened, it occurred to me that before designing methods to evaluate quality, we need to spend some time defining quality. Many definitions of higher education quality have been proposed; however, the panorama of higher education includes diverse institutions, each with a unique mission, purpose, and definition of acceptable student outcomes. In other words, agreement on a definition of quality is unlikely if not impossible.

A popular conception of academic quality in the U.S. views quality in terms of fitness for purpose. Quality assessment objectives are evaluated based on how well the institution meets its stated purposes, as described by its mission and institutional objectives. To see this in action, review a school's mission statement for clues to understanding how the school defines quality. For example, one local career college promises to be "uncompromisingly dedicated to helping people improve their lives through high-quality, college-level, career education." The purpose of education at this institution can be found in the word "career."  Because education at this school is all about job placement, success or failure can be measured in terms of job placement rates.

But wait. Is it possible there is more to a college education than just obtaining employment after graduation? Before we can define quality we need agreement on the purposes of a college education. What is a college education for, anyway? Is it solely to provide practical job skills, such as computer literacy or high-temperature welding? Is it to teach those difficult-to-measure skills like critical thinking, communication, and reasoning? Is it to do both? Can a college education do both?

The U.S. Department of Education has decreed in its recent Gainful Employment Debt Measures rule that academic quality in higher education consists of providing value to consumers and taxpayers by meeting minimum standards: students graduate, students get jobs, students pay back their student loans. Considering that taxpayer dollars subsidize public institutions in the form of grants and for-profit institutions in the form of access to student loan funding, it should not be surprising that the government wants to ensure institutions are in compliance with these standards. The DOE has enlisted the accrediting agencies to motivate compliance. Compliance is the new buzzword at career colleges, where great sums of money are spent paying people to figure out how to comply with government regulations.

Another definition of quality would have us measuring how well we meet the needs of the students—the so-called customer satisfaction model. Anyone who thinks that buying an education is similar to buying a toaster has been shopping online at the diploma mills. Student evaluations of instructors and programs are collected every term at at least one career college I know of. Faculty live or die by these evaluations. Are students really the best judge of academic quality? The instructors who are "nice" and "easy" get higher evaluations from students. Does that mean these instructors provide better academic quality? Probably not.

The radio show got me thinking. I've barely scratched the surface of a deep, vast topic. I felt like I had something to add to the radio conversation today, but I would never be brave enough to call in to TOTN. The mere thought of speaking to Neal Conan in person sends me into a hot flash. He's like the Tom Jones of talk radio. So I sent an email. Of course, it wasn't read on the air, but I felt a bit more like a valuable contributor for having sent it.