In responses from higher education to the 2006 report on Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings's Commission on the Future of Higher Education, "A Test of Leadership: Charting the Future of U.S. Higher Education," one particular argument is made repeatedly: that educational standardization of the sort implicitly called for in the…

Since the publication of "A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform" by the U.S. Department of Education in 1983, American higher education has faced the need to develop its own effective means of learning assessment to forestall the prospect of government-imposed standardized procedures. The latter potential may have moved closed…

Today, Americans face a challenge to the organization of higher education that, however it is resolved, will transform the enterprise. That challenge goes under the name "learning outcomes," or sometimes "accountability." It is a challenge brought largely by those outside higher education and is based on criticisms of the…

The concluding statement by participants in the 1990 Wolf Trap Conference on Academic Freedom and Artistic Expression (Virginia, April 29-May 1) proposes policies to assist institutions in responding to issues of accountability, audience, and public funding arising from presentation of artistic works to the public in a manner that preserves…

Discusses the use of post-tenure review to help preserve the tenure system at colleges and universities, focusing on the use of such reviews to encourage faculty development and productivity, ensure faculty control over the review system, and help marginal faculty improve their performance. (MDM)

Discussion of college faculty tenure focuses on the positive role of tenure in fostering academic excellence through shared governance and creative scholarship. Notes the relationship between the rise of the managerial university and the accountability movement, and sees both as undermining educational quality by eroding faculty autonomy and by…

Discussion of the current demand for accountability at the higher education level examines its historical background and finds the influence of the conservative backlash against the 1960s and the global demands of capitalism. Suggests that part of this movement's broader agenda is defunding the public university and submission to market forces.…

The Teachers Insurance and Annuities Association (TIAA) is criticized for inadequate financial disclosure of its mortgage and real estate investments, especially in the current market. A TIAA vice president responds that the company has not been remiss in reporting changes to its constituents and outlines its present financial status. (MSE)

The Teachers Insurance and Annuities Association's (TIAA) College Retirement and Equity Fund is criticized for its low returns and its chief executive officer's recent salary raise. It is said to be in need of additional regulation and policyholder involvement. A TIAA vice president responds that the analysis given is inaccurate and misleading.…

Academics in both the industrial world and developing countries face funding declines, growing state intervention, public hostility, and corporate pressure. Simultaneously, they are experiencing internal wars over policy, curriculum, and nature of scholarly communities. In North America debates about academic freedom center on tenure and free…

Solving higher education's budget dilemma is not just a matter of revenue acquisition or cost reduction. It requires demonstrating to the American people and their elected representatives that higher education's accomplishments warrant its high price. Accountability and performance measurement are important tools for justifying acquisition and…