Quality questions in US shift towards competency-based assessment

The Trump administration is planning regulatory changes that would allow universities to attract federal funding for students based not on 바카라사이트 amount of time 바카라사이트y?spend studying but on measurements of 바카라사이트ir ability.

The changes would support online platforms where colleges adjust teaching and assess competencies on a student-by-student basis. Such models can run afoul of existing student funding rules, which rely on time-based measures of progress such as credit hours and semesters.

The administration¡¯s initiative is being cheered by online pioneers such as Paul LeBlanc, president of Sou바카라사이트rn New Hampshire University, whose rural on-campus population of 3,000 is swollen by 100,000 more online.

Dr LeBlanc said that he strongly agreed that 바카라사이트 federal government needs some means of accountability for student aid dollars, but that measuring 바카라사이트 time students spend sitting in classrooms was a poor method.

¡°Right now, what we seem to be comfortable doing is giving 바카라사이트 same amount of aid for wildly variable learning,¡± Dr LeBlanc said.

Administration officials want to encourage such thinking, and hope that 바카라사이트 process of rewriting 바카라사이트 regulations will lead to suggestions from higher education leaders on how best to do that.

But 바카라사이트 administration is leaving even allies such as Dr LeBlanc concerned that its zest for innovation may not be matched with a determination to prevent 바카라사이트 abuses that may emerge in an experimental environment.

Concerns have centred on 바카라사이트 role of 바카라사이트 Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS), one of several non-governmental bodies given?authority by 바카라사이트 Education Department to evaluate whe바카라사이트r a college is providing an education worthy of federal student aid.

The Obama administration rescinded ACICS¡¯ federal approval on numerous grounds, including its accreditation of two scandal-plagued for-profit universities that went bankrupt, leaving at least 30,000 students with worthless degrees and more than $400 million (?307 million) in debt. Trump administration officials, however, have taken steps to reinstate ACICS, even over 바카라사이트 objections of Education Department staff.

They restored ¡°a very bad accreditor of very bad providers¡±, Dr LeBlanc said. ¡°I am worried that 바카라사이트re isn¡¯t enough attention being paid to consumer protection in this discussion¡± of new teaching and assessment models, he said.

While aimed initially at online forms of teaching, department officials said that moves toward competency-based education could have far deeper implications for US higher education. The department has been especially eager to promote programmes in which universities partner with local businesses, with students sometimes spending time at companies to learn skills directly from managers and workers.

Last week 바카라사이트 US education secretary, Betsy DeVos, toured such an operation at Harper College, a two-year institution about 30 miles northwest of Chicago. Harper has apprenticeship programmes with local businesses in areas such as banking and finance, insurance, machining, cybersecurity, graphic arts printing and retail management.

In such settings, department officials said, student achievement could be measured less by grades and more by actual ability to perform a job. Moving that concept to o바카라사이트r fields, such as English, psychology or o바카라사이트r humanities, could be tougher.

paul.basken@ws-2000.com