Oh boy, they just don't know when to quit.

Not being satisfied with “improving” elementary and secondary education, the Bush/Obama education juggernaut rolls on, reforming everything in its path and making sure we’re all “accountable.” When the Obama presidency began, if someone had told me that the term “Bush/Obama” would be part of my vocabulary I would have thought them mad. Well, time wounds all heals, and here we are in the brave new world of NCLB/RTTT, and I’m going to tell you it sucks. But slowly, like all real societal shifts, a movement is emerging among teachers, parents, administrators, social justice activists, and union organizers that is making for some pretty strange bedfellows as the left, right, and center all realize, each for its own reasons, that this whole education reform thing is a steaming pile of crap and has implications way beyond the hallowed halls of academia. How long these not-quite-coalitions can hold together is anyone’s guess, but let’s hope it’s long enough to put the reform beast to sleep for good. One of the bright spots that may emerge from this witch’s brew is if the furor over things like Common Core,VAM, PARCC, testing, vouchers, and charters proves to herald the re-emergence of strong teacher’s unions that truly have a powerful voice in making education policy, are proactive, and that respond to the voices of their members. Another may be the beginning of a real conversation about the effects of poverty and wealth/opportunity inequality in this country. In the meantime, gird yourself for battle or get out of the way – it’s a struggle for the soul of public education.
http://dianeravitch.net/2014/05/26/obama-brings-nclb-think-to-higher-education/

Obama Brings NCLB-Think to Higher Education by dianeravitch

The Obama administration wants to rate institutions of higher education, based on factors like cost,graduation rate, income of graduates.

 

Most college and university presidents are upset.

 

It didn't help that one administration official said that comparing the cost and quality of institutions of higher education should be no more difficult than comparing blenders. For some reason, the Obama administration thinks that it can play the role of Consumer Reports and thus improve the quality of higher education while lowering costs. How this will actually happen is anyone's guess.

 

Many of the university officials pointed out that the institutions that prepare graduates for relatively low-paid professions like social work and teaching would get low ratings, as would those that open their doors to risky low-income students. Those whose graduates go to Wall Street will look stellar.

 

Some said they would be penalized for focusing on the liberal arts and sciences, where the ultimate payoff is less than in fields like engineering.

 

The Obama administration, which is never in doubt about any of its ideas or policies, plans to push ahead, so that it can hold the nation's colleges and universities "accountable." There seems to be no tempering its love affair with data. Having no success to date with its policies for K-12, it now plans to bring the same failed ideas of NCLB-Race to the Top  to the nation's higher education sector.

 

Why doesn't the administration begin by regulating the for-profit sector, which has a historic record of poor performance and low graduation rates?

 

Well, no, it must apply its metrics of all institutions of higher education. This is NCLB style thinking. Leave these guys alone for a minute and they bring out their weights, measures, and scales.

 

Someone should tell them that the American system of higher education is generally considered the best, most diverse in the world, and it got that way without being controlled by the U.S . Department of Education.