First Draft of Higher Education Report Released

Though the release of a draft document is certainly unusual, Chairman Miller decided to release the draft to the public. Surprisingly, the draft will be discussed in a closed session this Wednesday. I’m not sure what the strategy is for this, but the early draft of the report certainly provides a perspective on the commissions overall attitude toward higher education.

There is a link to the draft in an article in Inside Higher Education. Though there is not a clear path for commenting on the document, we need to be aware of how these discussions develop. My brief review of the document certainly sees language that is reminiscent of NCLB, with reliance on a variety of assessment instruments developed by testing companies. WorkKeys is the instrument suggested for assessing two-year college student’s progress. Using a single measure for assessment certainly flies in the face of all that we know about using multiple measure for valid assessment.