Higher Ed Roundup: Week of December 15 – December 19

Obama Nominates Arne Duncan for Secretary of Education

Lump of Coal from Sallie Mae

Education Finance Partners May Not Pay Cuomo After All

Report Calls for Better Higher Ed Performance Data

Obama Nominates Arne Duncan for Secretary of Education

This week, President-elect Barack Obama nominated Arne Duncan, the superintendent of the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), to be the next education secretary. Duncan is a proven elementary and secondary school reformer, but less is known about his views on higher education. His nomination received widespread acclaim because he is known for being data-driven and also has a reputation for being open-minded and seeking common ground. Speaking at a news conference on Tuesday, Obama said that Duncan is “not beholden to any one ideology, and he doesn’t hesitate for one minute to do what needs to be done.”

Though Duncan’s certainly not considered a higher-education expert, he’s not a complete stranger to the field either. He serves on the Board of Overseers and the visiting committees for Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education and the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration. In addition, as chief of CPS, Duncan created a Postsecondary Education and Student Development Department, which works to connect high school students with college preparation assistance and oversees the city’s GEAR UP and AVID early-intervention programs. CPS also requires students to complete 40 hours of community service during high school to graduate, a service orientation similar to the 100 hours-a-year service requirement tied to Obama’s $4,000 a year tuition tax credit.

Lump of Coal from Sallie Mae

Sallie Mae’s student loan practices earned a rebuke this week from The Boston Globe, which printed a column about the lender’s initial refusal to forgive the loans of a 23-year old Marine who died just weeks before his unit was to ship out to Iraq. Two of Second Lt. Ian McVey’s lenders forgave the loans he took out to attend Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, while the third lender, Sallie Mae, said it would not. According to the column, McVey owed $53,144 to Sallie Mae, presumably in the form of private loans because federal loans are automatically dischargeable in the case of a student’s death. After writing an impassioned letter to the loan company about his son’s “decision to serve the country as a patriot,” McVey’s father was stunned to receive a form letter back from Sallie Mae demanding repayment. “What bothers me most is we say our country is at war, but it’s only the soldiers, the Marines, and their families who are at war,” he said. “We’re not in this together. Sallie Mae couldn’t care less.” After the column appeared, Sallie Mae reversed course and agreed to cancel the loans.

Education Finance Partners May Not Pay Cuomo After All

Education Finance Partners (EFP), a private student loan company, filed for bankruptcy protection this week, which could allow it to escape a $2.5-million settlement that it reached with New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo last year. The loan provider became a prime target of Cuomo’s after he learned that it had been making payments to at least 60 colleges that marketed the company’s private loans to their students. At a news conference in March 2007, Cuomo called EFP “one of the most aggressive and most egregious actors” in the pay-for-play student loan scandal. As a result of the scandal and the credit crunch, the company stopped making new loans this past August and laid off most of its employees.

Report Calls for Better Higher Ed Performance Data

Now is an opportune time for states to develop comprehensive data collection and research-based strategies to improve accountability in higher education, according to a new report from Education Sector. The report, “Ready to Assemble,” found that almost every state collects data on a range of accountability measures, including student outcomes, attainment, teaching quality, and affordability, but few do much with the information. “There are finally enough survey instruments and data processes available to assemble a comprehensive picture of higher education success,” the report states.

The report calls on states to establish a robust two-part, data-based accountability infrastructure. To accomplish this they must first expand data collection to include “value-added” exams administered to students in their first and final years of college and information from existing data sets such as the National Survey of Student Engagement. All this information must be disaggregated by race, gender, and economic status. Second, states need to develop strategies to tie accountability data to institutional governance, instructor compensation, and strategic planning. The authors stress that this effort should be led by state governments, which have the greatest financial influence and oversight capacity over colleges and universities.