US Government’s College Scorecards Plagued by Poor Design
By Julia Lawrence. Before College Scorecards — a tool highly-touted by the White House — can help high school students make informed decisions about their education, those high school students need to be able to understand them. And according to a new study out of the Center for American Progress and authored by Julie Margetta Morgan and Gadi Dechter, they do not.
The scorecards, which list such information as total cost of attendance, graduation rates, the average debt load carried by students — along with the potential earnings of those who graduate with a degree — are supposed to make it easier for potential applicants to get the full picture, all in a format that is consistent from school to school. Yet when four focus groups of high school seniors and juniors were asked their opinion on the new format, they were decidedly unimpressed. Read more...