Decrying a college ranking system that “serves some colleges and the companies that rank them just fine” but that “doesn’t serve our students well,” President Obama on Saturday unveiled the Education Department’s new, interactive college scorecard.
Housed at collegescorecard.ed.gov, the updated tool allows students to search for the higher education institution that serves them best, Obama said.
Students can search by graduates’ earnings and debt; they can find a school’s student-loan payback rate in addition to information like majors offered and campus type, available through the department’s original scorecard website.
“The old way of assessing college choices relied on static ratings lists compiled by someone who was deciding what value to place on different factors,” the White House said in a fact sheet accompanying the announcement. “The new way of assessing college choices, with the help of technology and open data, makes it possible for anyone … to decide what factors to evaluate.”
Obama and the White House stressed affordability.
“There are colleges dedicated to helping students of all backgrounds learn without saddling them with debt,” Obama said. “We should hold everybody to that standard.”
Associate degree holders earn $10,000 more annually than those who only have a high school diploma. And bachelor’s degree holders earn $1 million more over a lifetime, according to one study, Obama said.
“The country with the best-educated workforce in the world is going to win the 21st century economy; I want that to be America,” Obama said.
“That’s why everyone should be able to find clear, reliable, open data on college affordability and value — like whether they’re likely to graduate, find good jobs, and pay off their loans,” he continued. “Right now, however, many existing college rankings reward schools for spending more money and rejecting more students,” he said. “That doesn’t make sense.”
On Monday Obama will join Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who is kicking off a seven-state bus tour to coincide with the beginning of the school year. The duo will address a town-hall meeting on higher education in Des Moines, Iowa.
