Measuring Results: How Does Our Higher Education System Use Student Outcomes?

With over 5,000 institutions currently receiving $130 billion in taxpayer dollars each year, you might expect that a comparable “inspection” process exists to make sure institutions are providing value to students worthy of their tuition checks. And with such a large annual investment in higher education, you might think that the federal government would have mechanisms in place to thoroughly vet the institutions that receive federal funding. This memo provides a brief explanation of how the federal government currently uses student outcomes in its higher education quality assurance systems and explores actions that are being considered at the federal level to better target federal funds to institutions that serve students well.