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College Uses Test Data to Show Value
Cash-Conscious Families Clamor for Numbers on How Much Students Learn
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By DOUGLAS BELKIN CONNECT
Feb. 20, 2014 7:49 p.m. ET
Prospective students speak with a professor during an open house Monday at Kalamazoo College, which is making test data publicly available. Sam Gause for The Wall Street Journal
KALAMAZOO, Mich.—Four years ago, Kalamazoo College faced a shrinking number of Michigan high-school graduates, declining applications and an endowment getting hammered by the recession.
Then the small, picturesque liberal-arts school decided on a bold step. It started publicizing test results showing what its students had learned in their four years—a surprisingly rare strategy in a higher-education industry that usually prefers to keep such things private.
Parents of prospective students "come here and they want to know, 'What are we getting for our money?' " said Eric Staab, Kalamazoo's dean of admissions, who credits the change with helping the school weather the recession in relatively good shape. "This gave us some data to stand on."
Evaluating schools and teachers based on test scores has become a battleground in efforts to revamp K-12 education. But the nation's colleges and universities have long bristled at efforts to use similar metrics to scrutinize how well they teach students.
Schools have resisted the Obama administration's call for a national college-rating system that could tie federal grants and loans to student performance during and after college. Any national system would likely include metrics like graduation rates and student-loan default rates. If assessments of what students learn are included at all, they would almost certainly be voluntary, an administration official said.
Paul Sotherland, associate provost at Kalamazoo, offers prospective scholars and their parents presentations on student performance. Sam Gause for The Wall Street Journal
That lack of information is "this huge paradox sitting at the center of higher education," said Richard Freeland, Massachusetts Commissioner of Higher Education. At most schools, "we don't really know what learning is going on."
Now, as prospective students and their cash-strapped families eye schools with greater skepticism since the recession, a handful of schools like Kalamazoo, St. Olaf College in Minnesota and Sarah Lawrence College in New York are moving to open that black box. They are betting that a whiff of fresh air will give them a competitive advantage—and woo back parents and employers whose faith in the value of a college degree has been rattled.
Mr. Freeland is helping set up a project that includes about 50 public schools across nine states. Using so-called value rubrics, student work will be graded by faculty from other schools, and the amount they learn over time will be measured against students at other schools.
Mr. Freeland, the former president of Northeastern University, hopes that transparency will create a level playing field for competition between schools—and help schools make a fact-based case for state support.
Parents, meanwhile, will "know beyond a school's reputation or the record of its football team what the level of learning is going on in the classroom," he said. "The stakes are huge."
In 2006, then-Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings issued a report that called for the federal government to demand more accountability and transparency fromhigher education. Several initiatives were started to measure students' academic progress so schools could be compared against each other, but those efforts have tapered off.
It isn't that schools don't have data on the matter. A survey of 1,202 two- and four-year schools published in January by the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment found that while 85% of schools have some sort of learning assessment, less than 10% make them publicly available. Even fewer are standardized, so they can't be used to compare one institution with another, said Natasha Jankowski, a co-author of the report.
"We're in the business of teaching and learning, but how well we are really helping to prepare students isn't something that we have been very open about," Ms. Jankowski said.
The more selective schools are the least likely to share their assessments, the survey found.
"Elite institutions have everything to lose and very little to gain," said Charles Blaich, a professor at Wabash College who helps assess student learning at colleges around the country. "A lot of schools are scared because they don't know how they are going to be measured.
Kalamazoo's change of heart came about unexpectedly. In 2005, along with 29 other schools, it took part in a longitudinal study that gave freshmen a test to measure their problem solving, reasoning and critical thinking. The same test was administered to them as seniors. Kalamazoo students did well on the test both as freshmen and seniors, but most importantly, the amount they improved over time was at or above the 95th percentile in each category. Subsequent test results were similar.
Now, when high-school seniors who have been accepted to Kalamazoo come for a campus visit before deciding where they will go, they attend a 15-minute Power Point presentation delivered by Paul Sotherland, the associate provost. "The effect that Kalamazoo has on students is huge," he said in an interview.
When John Chipman, the father of a high-school senior recently accepted to Kalamazoo, learned of the school's performance this week, he was impressed, but he wished he had data from other schools. "We've visited eight or 10 schools so far," he said. "Would it be nice to have some data to look at to be able to compare how well these schools are really teaching? It would be a huge help."
Write to Douglas Belkin at doug.belkin@wsj.com
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Cash-Conscious Families Clamor for Numbers on How Much Students Learn
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By DOUGLAS BELKIN CONNECT
Feb. 20, 2014 7:49 p.m. ET
Prospective students speak with a professor during an open house Monday at Kalamazoo College, which is making test data publicly available. Sam Gause for The Wall Street Journal
KALAMAZOO, Mich.—Four years ago, Kalamazoo College faced a shrinking number of Michigan high-school graduates, declining applications and an endowment getting hammered by the recession.
Then the small, picturesque liberal-arts school decided on a bold step. It started publicizing test results showing what its students had learned in their four years—a surprisingly rare strategy in a higher-education industry that usually prefers to keep such things private.
Parents of prospective students "come here and they want to know, 'What are we getting for our money?' " said Eric Staab, Kalamazoo's dean of admissions, who credits the change with helping the school weather the recession in relatively good shape. "This gave us some data to stand on."
Evaluating schools and teachers based on test scores has become a battleground in efforts to revamp K-12 education. But the nation's colleges and universities have long bristled at efforts to use similar metrics to scrutinize how well they teach students.
Schools have resisted the Obama administration's call for a national college-rating system that could tie federal grants and loans to student performance during and after college. Any national system would likely include metrics like graduation rates and student-loan default rates. If assessments of what students learn are included at all, they would almost certainly be voluntary, an administration official said.
Paul Sotherland, associate provost at Kalamazoo, offers prospective scholars and their parents presentations on student performance. Sam Gause for The Wall Street Journal
That lack of information is "this huge paradox sitting at the center of higher education," said Richard Freeland, Massachusetts Commissioner of Higher Education. At most schools, "we don't really know what learning is going on."
Now, as prospective students and their cash-strapped families eye schools with greater skepticism since the recession, a handful of schools like Kalamazoo, St. Olaf College in Minnesota and Sarah Lawrence College in New York are moving to open that black box. They are betting that a whiff of fresh air will give them a competitive advantage—and woo back parents and employers whose faith in the value of a college degree has been rattled.
Mr. Freeland is helping set up a project that includes about 50 public schools across nine states. Using so-called value rubrics, student work will be graded by faculty from other schools, and the amount they learn over time will be measured against students at other schools.
Mr. Freeland, the former president of Northeastern University, hopes that transparency will create a level playing field for competition between schools—and help schools make a fact-based case for state support.
Parents, meanwhile, will "know beyond a school's reputation or the record of its football team what the level of learning is going on in the classroom," he said. "The stakes are huge."
In 2006, then-Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings issued a report that called for the federal government to demand more accountability and transparency fromhigher education. Several initiatives were started to measure students' academic progress so schools could be compared against each other, but those efforts have tapered off.
It isn't that schools don't have data on the matter. A survey of 1,202 two- and four-year schools published in January by the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment found that while 85% of schools have some sort of learning assessment, less than 10% make them publicly available. Even fewer are standardized, so they can't be used to compare one institution with another, said Natasha Jankowski, a co-author of the report.
"We're in the business of teaching and learning, but how well we are really helping to prepare students isn't something that we have been very open about," Ms. Jankowski said.
The more selective schools are the least likely to share their assessments, the survey found.
"Elite institutions have everything to lose and very little to gain," said Charles Blaich, a professor at Wabash College who helps assess student learning at colleges around the country. "A lot of schools are scared because they don't know how they are going to be measured.
Kalamazoo's change of heart came about unexpectedly. In 2005, along with 29 other schools, it took part in a longitudinal study that gave freshmen a test to measure their problem solving, reasoning and critical thinking. The same test was administered to them as seniors. Kalamazoo students did well on the test both as freshmen and seniors, but most importantly, the amount they improved over time was at or above the 95th percentile in each category. Subsequent test results were similar.
Now, when high-school seniors who have been accepted to Kalamazoo come for a campus visit before deciding where they will go, they attend a 15-minute Power Point presentation delivered by Paul Sotherland, the associate provost. "The effect that Kalamazoo has on students is huge," he said in an interview.
When John Chipman, the father of a high-school senior recently accepted to Kalamazoo, learned of the school's performance this week, he was impressed, but he wished he had data from other schools. "We've visited eight or 10 schools so far," he said. "Would it be nice to have some data to look at to be able to compare how well these schools are really teaching? It would be a huge help."
Write to Douglas Belkin at doug.belkin@wsj.com
Save
↓ More
26 Comments
Order Reprints
Google+
WSJ In-Depth
Feud Over Netflix Traffic Leads to Video Slowdown
High-Speed Traders Turn to Laser Beams
Germany to Press Search for Looted Art
Smart Hubs: A Brain for Your House
Social Network Built for Two
The Season of the Shoe
JOURNAL COMMUNITY
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View All Comments (26) Community rules
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Netflix to Pay Comcast to End Traffic Jam
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Forbes
Best 5 Graduate Degrees You Should Just Get Online
Education Portal
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Survey: ‘Hyper Growth’ Small Businesses Spending More on Social Media
Fox Business
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