As it works on the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA) of 1965, Congress is considering changing the way the federal government holds colleges accountable by measuring performance program-by-program rather than institution-by-institution, as it does today. On the surface, this idea has common-sense appeal because a college could, for example, have a high-performing nursing program but also a disastrous engineering program. Rather than judging an institution by its overall performance—as is the case with current accountability metrics—program-level accountability would judge each program at a school in isolation. This means that if some programs did well and others did poorly, only the poorly performing programs would face sanctions.
Beneath the surface, however, there is a major catch to this approach.
Read more at the Center for American Progress: https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education-postsecondary/news/2018/03/15/447959/changes-higher-ed-accountability-portend-big-downside-students-color/