The American Legion and EducationCounsel (EdCounsel), an education consulting firm, on Tuesday unveiled a new risk-based model to aid state regulators in their oversight of colleges that enroll GI Bill recipients.
Recent legislation enacted by Congress requires the state agencies that approve colleges for eligibility in the GI Bill program to conduct risk-based reviews to gauge whether the institutions leave students better off and provide a good return to taxpayers, Inside Higher Ed reported. However, state agencies have been slow to implement the change largely due to limited staffing and budgets.
To aid the process, EdCounsel and the National Association of State Approving Agencies (NASAA) undertook a project to develop and test a data-informed approach to implement the risk-based reviews. The organizations worked with a 22-member advisory council—including AACRAO—representing veterans, schools, accreditors, and states to create a framework based on publicly available data about student outcomes, complaints, and institutional financial and enrollment trends (such as sharp increases or decreases in enrollment) to help the agencies assess a college's risk to veterans and taxpayers, reported Inside Higher Ed.
The model "leverages publicly available metrics to measure the likelihood of risk posed by all institutions receiving GI Bill dollars in each state and allow [approving agencies] to prioritize limited oversight resources toward deeper review of the institutions evincing the most risk," the American Legion and EdCounsel said in the report.
"This pilot has demonstrated that risk-based, outcomes-focused reviews are feasible, effective for regulators and students, and can be realistically implemented, right now," Nathan Arnold, senior advisor at EducationCounsel, said in a statement.
Related Links
Lessons from a Risk-Based Oversight Model Designed to Protect Students and Taxpayers
https://educationcounsel.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/RiskBasedReviewReportFinal012822.pdf
Inside Higher Ed
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/02/01/possible-model-identifying-riskiest-colleges-students