When Obama released his plan for higher education reform today the intent was to make college more affordable while making the process more transparent. IT also hopes to make institutions accountable for their students' success (much more so than they seem to be today).
Tennessee was mentioned in the news release as a potential model for some of these changes. There is a group in Nashville called TCASN (Tennessee College Access and Success Network) that is right in the thick of these programs. (Disclosure: TCASN is run by a friend of mine, Bob Obrahta)
TCASN put out a release talking about some of the work going on in Tennessee today, it is worth a look if you are interested in how some of these programs might look in actual practice. Jump through the Fleur de Kos for a few highlights.
- Make funding more dependent upon performance (read: graduation) rather than signing up as many new students as possible. In 2010 TN passed the Complete College Tennessee Act that
created a funding formula that rewarded colleges and universities for retaining and graduating students instead of basing funding on the number of students enrolled. Included in the formula are targeted sub-group populations, including Pell recipients.
- Obama called for redesigning the use of technology in education, in 2012 TN started a pilot program at 4 community colleges that is trying to reinvent the way developmental math is taught to both current and potential students.
I am not an expert, but it looks to me that some of these proposals are already past the "wouldn't it be nice if..." stage and they have actually started being used in real life. If we can learn from the mistakes already made, and build on the successes already realized, that should give us a head start on reforming the bigger picture. Anything we can do to improve education in America should be a top priority.
I am not a Tweeter, but if you are TCASN is having a conversation now.