Dr. Mark Schneider of AIR Tells House Subcommittee the Nation Needs Better Metrics to Measure the Quality of U.S. Colleges and Universities

Washington, D.C. – Dr. Mark Schneider, a vice president at the American Institutes for Research (AIR) and former Commissioner of the federal National Center for Education Statistics, testified on September 20 before a subcommittee of the House of Representatives and said the nation needs better ways to measure the quality of the education U.S. colleges and universities provide.

“The nation invests untold billions of taxpayer dollars in its higher education system,” Schneider said in remarks prepared for delivery before the House Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training. “Students and their families pour even more into a system that often is thought of as the best in the world.”

“While clearly the nation has the lion’s share of the world’s great universities, we also support hundreds upon hundreds of campuses that are not doing a good job of educating their students, graduating them, or helping them find jobs,” he said.

During his appearance, Schneider outlined some metrics needed to better measure the performance of colleges and universities. He focused on four areas: student success while in college; student learning outcomes; student success in the labor market; and the cost of earning a degree.

The full text of his prepared remarks is available on the AIR website.

About AIR
Established in 1946, with headquarters in Washington, D.C., the American Institutes for Research (AIR) is a nonpartisan not-for-profit organization that conducts behavioral and social science research and delivers technical assistance both domestically and internationally in education, health, and workforce productivity. For more information, visit www.air.org.

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