Standards
New Task Force to Develop Quality Assurance Standards for Non-Traditional Education Programs
Entangled Solutions is forming a Quality Assurance Task Force to drive accountability and transparency for emerging models of education. The higher education consultancy today announced the initial members of the task force, who will "collaborate in the development of quality assurance standards that can be used to measure and report on outcomes for a diverse, cross section of education providers," according to a press release.
The task force includes representatives from the University of Texas at Austin, Western Governors University and Bellevue University, as well as higher education industry leaders, former policymakers and associations, who will collect feedback from stakeholders to codify "transparent, outcome-oriented standards for evaluating educational programs." A draft of the standards will be published for public comment. Once the standards are finalized, an independent nonprofit organization will be created to maintain and update them over time.
"We are excited about the potential for public sector investment to expand access to non-traditional models of education, but believe a critical first step is establishing transparent measures of quality to inform the policy process," said Michael Horn, principal consultant at Entangled Solutions and a distinguished fellow at the Clayton Christensen Institute, in a statement. "The process for developing outcome measures must involve more than education providers; both students and policymakers deserve transparency into outcomes validated by independent, third parties to inform their investment decisions."
"This is a powerful concept and important work," said Frederick Hess, director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. "Standards that boost transparency, provide clarity into what graduates have actually learned, and permit students to make sound investments in their future are a vital part of creating a less bureaucratic, more student-centered landscape in postsecondary education."
Information on the task force's mission statement, timeline and membership is available here.
About the Author
Rhea Kelly is editor in chief for Campus Technology, THE Journal, and Spaces4Learning. She can be reached at [email protected].
