Easy A's may be even easier to score these days, with the growing popularity of online courses. Tech-savvy students are finding ways to cheat that let them ace online courses with minimal effort, in ways that are difficult to detect. The issue of online cheating may rise in prominence, as more and more institutions embrace online courses, and as…

In this article, the author discusses the public discourse on education. On that subject, Republicans and Democrats speak the same language--and so, with striking uniformity, do more and more college and university leaders. The view of teaching and learning as an economic driver is a limited one, which puts at risk America's most distinctive…

As pressure mounts on colleges to document what their students learn, it remains tough to judge from outside the classroom how much knowledge they gain from their academic experience. The traditional measure of learning is the course grade. Nothing says academic success more succinctly than an A. Alternative methods to document learning have…

The handyman has a tool for everything, but the admissions dean is not so lucky: He must make do with just a few. Every year, presidents and professors expect freshmen who are curious, determined, and hungry for challenges. The traditional metrics of merit, however, can't reveal such qualities. Standardized-test scores may or may not predict a…

In this article, two professors retake the college-entrance exam and arrive at very different conclusions about its performance. Even though Christopher Harper has worked as a college professor for 15 years, he decided last winter to take the SAT and ACT examinations that his students needed to enter the institution where he teaches, Temple…

For years, advanced-practice nurses have struggled for greater autonomy from doctors while physician groups have fought back, trying to protect what they see as their turf. This article reports that a new degree and a new certification test are blurring those boundaries even further. The test, and the "doctor of nursing practice" degree it…

In this article, the author talks about the release of the most comprehensive study of SAT exams. The headline on the Web site of the College Board, the maker of the test, was, "SAT Studies Show Test's Strength in Predicting College Success." At the same time, a headline on the Web site of the group FairTest, a 23-year-old, nonprofit…

The University of Phoenix is often derided by traditional academics for caring more about its bottom line than about academic quality, and every year, the annual report issued by its parent company focuses more on profits than student performance. This article reports that the institution that has become the largest private university in North…

Last year the National Association for College Admission Counseling (Nacac) asked William R. Fitzsimmons, dean of admissions and financial aid at Harvard University, to lead a panel that would examine testing issues and recommend how colleges might better use entrance exams. The dean and his fellow panelists were to present their findings this…

This article reports on Education Secretary Margaret Spellings' attempt to convince colleges that they risk painful government interventions if they do not improve the quality of their programs and help more students evaluate and afford them. As the Bush administration nears an end, Ms. Spellings tries to persuade colleges to adopt the measures…

Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores still wield a mighty force in American culture and in the psyches of teenagers, even though 760 American colleges and universities have made standardized testing an optional part of the admissions process. Three years ago, after the new writing portion of the SAT was unveiled, the author's college, the College…

Wake Forest University will no longer require applicants to submit standardized test scores, the university announced last week. The move makes Wake Forest, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, one of the most prominent institutions with a "test optional" admissions policy. The university's decision reveals the increasing complexity of the…

As more colleges move to "test optional" admissions policies, the debate over the utility and interpretation of standardized-test scores continues. In this article, the author interviews Daniel Koretz, a professor of education at Harvard University and author of "Measuring Up: What Educational Testing Really Tells Us". Koretz…

At the annual conference of the National Association for College Admission Counseling (Nacac), admissions deans and high-school counselors gathered in September 2007 to grapple with questions such as: (1) Rethinking the role of standardized tests in admissions (many attendees predict that psychometric giants ACT and SAT, will not always dominate…

The home-school movement, a once-marginalized segment of the educational community, is all grown up and going off to college. As colleges across the nation report increasing numbers of applications from home-schooled students, policies have been developed to evaluate these candidates. Translating years of independent study into something that…