Colleges Are Tested by Push to Prove Graduates' Career Success

By: Won Gyung

According to “Colleges Are Tested by Push to Prove Graduates’ Career Success” by Melissa Korn, graduates’ success in finding well paying jobs is trumpeted by college admissions officers, but the school is usually hard to get some proofs. Many college officials say that taking out employment outcomes to a single standard is not easy because obstacles stand in the way of gathering meaningful figures and conveying them. Beside, others say that they do not believe of tying the nuances of educational success to dollar figures. Federal and state governments are taking steps of their own to measure the value of higher education, yet the efforts are not noticeable. The Higher Education Opportunity Act bars the federal government from making a nationwide database of student records, with opponents quoting privacy and other concerns. The U.S. Education Department is comparing options for a new college rating system which can include graduate employment information.

College Measures, which is a partnership between American Institutes for Research and Matrix Knowledge has helped seven states such as Texas, Florida and Virginia gather information about student record and work to make websites providing employment statistics for graduates. However, school opposes these initiatives because many of efforts are quantify education success. At the same time, college admissions officers realized that using data about graduates’ success in their marketing methods and websites. However, according to Mark Schneider who is a president of College Measures, “college graduates’ are not scientifically sound surveys”. He mourned their horrific answer rates and choice bias, noting that those with good news to report are more likely to respond.

Some colleges argue that there is no clear standard to get statistic results, but some colleges are finding that meaningful information can get easier than their thinking. For example, St. Olaf College in Northfield didn’t expend any staff or make a new fund to improve the response rate to its survey of students on year after graduation to 92% from about 30%. The whole project prices $750, including an online-survey and pizza for student volunteers.

I’m a third grade student in my home university. Although my college clock is temporary stopping because I’m in US now, I should start to consider about my future plan which is what can I do after graduating the university. If some people’s major is a law like me, it is very hard to find a job related to major; law is very specific field. Therefore, some people who graduate my major in my university did not get a job, and it is very hard to know about graduate students. I hope my university also creates a new way to get information about graduates like as in this article.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303546204579435050684294642