The University and College Accountability Network

One of the most rewarding experiences I have had in my career has been working on a project to simplify disclosure of information to prospective college and university students, the results of that work were released in a press conference on Wednesday with something called UCAN or the University and College Accountability Network. The press from around the country was uniformly positive on this new resource for families.

As noted in an earlier post the disclosure sheet is a simple disclosure document that gives prospective students and parents a visual compendium of information that they (students and parents in focus groups) said they wanted. It is filled with links so that if you want to find more you can. It gives a good overview without mandating a one size fits all approach as had been suggested by some USDE officials.

What was more interesting to me as this project developed was how a wide range of people got involved to make suggestions. After some initial hesitation, college representatives began to offer a bunch of creative suggestions which made the sheet both clearer and more useful. Ditto for the suggestions from parents and students in focus groups. It is likely that this project will continue to develop as experience comes when people and colleges and universities begin to use it.

Amazingly the USDE released a revision of their electronic information site, (formerly called the COOL site) which, according to USDE officials, was also focus group tested. There was no claim that the site was ever seriously discussed with college and university representatives. The UCAN project was vetted with the USDE and also with staff Capitol Hill. It is not hard to think that USDE rushed the announcement of their site to steal the thunder of the UCAN project.

One of the problems that many of us have had with the USDE approach from Secretary Spellings and her hand picked chair of a commission to look at higher education policy (called the Spellings Commission) have had is their argument that the decision to go to college is actually like any other consumer decision. Charles Miller and Secretary Spellings seem to think that buying a melon and choosing a college are the same kinds of choice. But they are not. Indeed, in both cases, the decision can be improved with a higher level of information. But the kinds and depth of information required are fundamentally different. More importantly the decision points that students and their families bring to the college decision vary significantly even for the same institution. Some choose on the basis of faculty or alumni or location or programs - and the relative weight of those factors can vary. The UCAN project developed a set of information which all of the people involved thought would encourage further exploration. And that is what the college decision would involve. Charles Miller seems to think of the world in simple terms. Luckily most parents and students don't want that simple view.