For higher ed, no Race to the Top

CHICAGO -- The Obama administration has laid out a specific reform agenda for K-12 public education.

When it comes to higher education, the administration has no shortage of goals. By 2020, the president wants the United States to regain its position in the world as having the highest percentage of adults with post-secondary degrees. But where's the explicit reform agenda?

Robert Shireman, a deputy undersecretary at the U.S. Department of Education focused on higher education, spoke to a group of reporters last night here at a Hechinger Institute seminar.

His answer?

The Obama administration is looking for a more organic approach to reforms in the higher education world.

"We did ask (researchers), 'Are there two or three things where we say you should do this, and this and this?" Shireman said.

In public, K-12 education, the administration thinks some of the answers lie in expanding access to charter schools and allowing teacher and principal evaluations to be tied to students' academic performance.

"We need more innovation and evaluation in higher education," Shireman said. "We need to encourage states, institutions to try things and evaluate them in a way that says this got us the learning outcomes, or it got us the learning outcomes in a more efficient way than we had."

So, colleges should be constant laboratories for practices that work in boosting retention and graduation rates, according to Shireman. But there's no standard to apply to all higher education institutions, he said.

"The diversity in higher education is huge," Shireman said. "Identifying one thing that fits everything is difficult."

For now, expect no Race to the Top competition that demands particular changes in higher education.