Measure for measure.

• Author: Warren, David L.
• Position: Letter to the editor

Kevin Carey's premise in his recent article ("Is Our Students Learning?" September) seems to be that colleges are deliberately hiding information which--if made public--would allow the creation of a perfect ranking system for institutions of higher education. Private colleges are portrayed as the chief villain in this tale of evasion and subterfuge. On all counts, he's just plain wrong.

Colleges and universities are appropriately accountable to more stakeholders than any other American business enterprise I can imagine. Their stakeholders include the students who attend, the parents who pay the bills; the alumni who remain tied to and support their institutions; the faculty and staff who operate and are paid by the institutions; the employers who hire the students; the governments that subsidize and regulate the institutions and gain extensive research knowledge from them; the communities in which the institutions are situated; and the general public who contribute taxes and reap the benefits of an educated citizenry.

If colleges and universities struggle with ways to show they are being appropriately accountable, it is largely because of the tremendous amount and diversity of information which they must, should--and do--produce to the satisfaction of these various stakeholders.

The perfect ranking system? Colleges and universities do not make cars. They do not stamp out widgets. They graduate human beings who, at the end of four years, cannot be rubberstamped, "quality-tested and approved."

College and universities graduate people who come to them already molded. A large measure of individual effort is involved in learning. The institution itself is only one factor, albeit a critical and important one, in the lives of the students attending the institution. This does not absolve the institution of the responsibility of educating and supporting these individuals to the very best of their abilities; however, it does mean that an institution cannot give a student one test at the end of four years and declare them forevermore failures or successes in life.

Moreover, there are many views of success. Carey wants to judge institutions by a narrow workforce standard: how quickly their students find jobs, get promoted, and how much they earn. American society is not comprised solely of investment bankers, doctors, lawyers, and other high-earning professionals. The artists, teachers, social workers...