GRADING THE GOVERNMENT: It’s that time of the presidential cycle, again—the time of grading legacies. While at the ASU+GSV summit this week, Ted Mitchell, the Obama Administration’s top official for higher education, reflected on his team’s work during his tenure as undersecretary of education.
“It’s easy for me to give grades: incomplete. This is a long game, and I think we’ve gotten a number of things started that will continue to bear fruit,” he tells U.S. News and World Report. Mitchell emphasized the work yet to be done to increase the proportion of U.S. adults with a degree, work brought under the spotlight in a recent Gallup-Lumina survey. Mitchell also addressed the changing demographics of students today, his department’s unsuccessful attempt to launch a college ranking system, his overhaul of the College Scorecard, his desire for stronger data infrastructure that can track outcomes across federal agencies, and his office’s relationship with the for-profit sector.
