Accountability pressures in higher education are not new; they are part of an enduring public policy discourse about the costs and benefits, both individual and social, of higher education. What is relatively new, however, is the prominent place that issues of accountability now occupy on the nation's higher education agenda. There is an important…

After almost three decades of increasing calls for greater accountability and transparency, colleges and universities in the United States are beginning to respond to the public's need for reliable information about their performance. In this article, the author examines the basic elements of two new templates to public discourse. The author…