Resize Text: 
We in higher education are in a jam regarding our unwillingness to disclose information about our performance to the public. And it’s our own fault. A few decades ago, colleges and universities began making extravagant claims about themselves in an effort to attract student applicants. In the marketing of colleges and universities today, each makes all kinds of unsupported assertions about its merits and presents itself as the best choice for all students. If we look at such claims (as we should) through the lens of our professional, academic norms of evidence, careful argument, and fidelity to truth-seeking, we should blush. At the same time, colleges and universities have been historically slow to voluntarily reveal relevant, systematic information about themselves. By and large, we have disclosed only what was favorable to us.
But now, after almost three decades of increasing calls for greater accountability and transparency, colleges and universities in the United States are beginning to respond to the public’s need for reliable information about our performance. The basic elements of a shared, professional commitment to public disclosure are only just emerging, but the emergent format is the Web template, a handsome array of which are now coming online.
Douglas Bennett is president and professor of politics at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana. He chairs the advisory board for the National Survey of Student Engagement and serves on the board of directors of the Council for Aid to Education, which developed the Collegiate Learning Assessment.
Become a Subscriber