ERIC Number: ED614925
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2021-Sep
Pages: 210
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: 978-1-4758-6224-9
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
The Myths of Measurement and Meritocracy: Why Accountability Metrics in Higher Education Are Unfair and Increase Inequality
Beach, J. M.
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
This book examines the idea of educational accountability in higher education, which has become a new secular gospel. But do accountability policies actually make colleges better? What if educational accountability tools don't actually measure what they're supposed to? What if accountability data isn't valid, or worse, what if it's meaningless? What if administrators don't know how to use accountability tools or correctly analyze the problematic data these tools produce? What if we can't measure, let alone accurately assess, what matters most with teaching or student learning. What if students don't learn much in college? What if higher education was never designed to produce student learning? What if college doesn't help most students, either personally or economically? What if higher education isn't meritocratic, actually exacerbates inequality, and makes the lives of disadvantaged students even worse? This book will answer these questions with a wide, interdisciplinary range of the latest scientific research. [Foreword written by David Labaree.]
Descriptors: Accountability, Higher Education, Educational Policy, Measurement Techniques, Equal Education, Data Use, Evaluation Methods, Disadvantaged Youth
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 15200 NBN Way, P.O. Box 191, Blue Ridge Summit, PA 17214-0191. Tel: 800-462-6420; Fax: 800-338-4550; e-mail: custserv@rowman.com; Web site: http://rowman.com/RLPublishers
Publication Type: Books; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A