America's Best Colleges?

The annual U.S. News rankings are out, re-igniting the debate about which colleges and universities are "best" in the nation. The U.S. Secretary of Education's Commission on the Future of Higher Education recently criticized the nation's higher education system as "increasingly risk-averse, at times self-satisfied, and unduly expensive." The report calls for new, public measures of how well colleges teach and how much college students learn, in order to give consumers choosing colleges better information and to create new incentives for colleges to improve the education they provide. Congress is considering a new version of the federal Higher Education Act. And more high school students are gearing up to apply to college than ever before.

Join Education Sector for a discussion with leading federal policymakers and higher education experts about how colleges and universities should—or shouldn't—be measured, ranked, and held accountable for giving students an affordable, high-quality education.

This Education Sector featured:

Kevin Carey, Research and Policy Manager, Education Sector

Paul Glastris, Editor-in-Chief, The Washington Monthly, (as moderator)

David Dunn, Acting Under Secretary at the U.S. Department of Education and Chief of Staff to the U.S. Secretary of Education

Brian Kelly, Executive Editor, US News & World Report

Patricia A. McGuire, President, Trinity University

Charles Miller, Chairman of the federal Commission on the Future of Higher Education

David E. Shulenburger, Vice President for Academic Affairs, National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC)