AFT Higher Education has released its second issue of American Academic—appropriately named “Accountability:  To Whom and For What?” This issue takes up the questions of what constitutes “success” in higher education and what accountability measures should be used. As American Academic editor Mitchell Vogel notes, “We are concerned in this, the second issue of our journal, with what should count, how it should be counted, who does the counting and how effective the counting measures are.”

American Academic looks at the issues of success and accountability through 10 articles ranging from quantitative and qualitative information on success in higher education to specific accountability measures that have been passed down from the state and federal levels.

Judith Eaton from the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) states in her article, “Government officials at the state and federal levels see academic quality primarily in terms of how well higher education performs and continues to press for greater accountability based on expected results of higher education performance.” Eaton offers a careful examination of the state's and the federal government's expectations of academic quality and accountability. She then evaluates four emerging trends currently influencing today’s academic climate: universalization, globalization, electronically delivered distance learning, and information availability. 

The journal’s articles also take a look at specific measures of accountability including graduation rates and the now abandoned State Postsecondary Review Entity (SPRE) program. In their article, Lawrence Gold and Lindsay Albert raise serous questions about the use of graduation rates to measure institutional performance. They also summarize accountability measures at the state and federal level as they relate to graduation rates and discuss strategies and approaches that might help in increasing student persistence and retention.  In a related article, Terese Rainwater of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) presents an extensive case study of the SPRE’s program and why and how it failed as an accountability measure.  

This issue of American Academic comes at a crucial time when state and federal governments as well as the institutions themselves are re-evaluating the higher education system on a regular basis.  We have found that all too often the debate is focused on what new accountability measures are out there, as opposed to what institutions and students need to succeed in higher education. We hope this issue will offer some new perspectives on accountability and success and begin a discussion on what truly is appropriate in measuring our higher education system.

If you would like a copy of American Academic, contact Lindsay Albert, Senior Associate, at lalbert@aft.org. 

The journal will also be available on our higher education Web site: http://www.aft.org/higher_ed.

[Lindsay Albert]

March 9, 2006