Placement by the federal government of undercover students at 15 for-profit colleges, produced seven instances of “mixed results” regarding an instructor or institutions adherence to policies regarding course grading standards, academic dishonesty, and exit counselling, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
“While all 12 enrolled students engaged in behaviors consistent with substandard academic performance, each instructor in each class responded to such substandard performance differently,” the GAO said, also noting that “The experience of each of our undercover students is unique and cannot be generalized to other students taking courses offered by the for-profit colleges we tested or to other for-profit or nonprofit colleges.”
Although some instructors followed federal guidelines, others failed to respond inappropriately, sometimes violating their own institutions policies. For instance, one student received credit for repeated instances of known plagiarism, “but the instructor did not note the plagiarism and gave credit for the work.” Another student, at another institution, “was awarded points for assignments that she did not complete, in violation of grading standards for the class,” the GAO said.
The GAO added that “generally, our students who were not expelled for performance or attendance reasons were able to withdraw from their respective colleges without incident.”
Over 2,000 for-profit colleges, the GAO also observed, participate in the Title IV program that provides federal funding to students attending these institutions.
