Dive Brief:
- A new paper argues against the Obama administration’s proposed federal college ratings system, calling it “well-intentioned but poorly devised.”
- Low-income students — the population that the administration is most concerned about — choose colleges based on factors that that are irrelevant in a ratings system, says the American Council on Education report. Those include cost and how close a school is to the student’s home.
- A ratings system, like the one proposed by the administration, cannot serve both the needs of policy makers and students, according to the paper.
Dive Insight:
The list of opponents to the Obama plan is growing. Despite the administration’s assertion that its rating system plan is very different from the ubiquitous U.S. and World Report’s rankings, the American Council on Education argues that the ratings will essentially be a ranking. Rankings are more important to wealthier students. So the hierarchy created by ranking lists creates incentives for colleges to shift their spending, fund-raising, admissions, and financial aid policies to appeal to the wealthy, which reinforces socioeconomic stratification.
