National Report Card on Higher Education in the USA

Abstract

The policy instrument described in this analysis is a biennial series of reports, Measuring Up, prepared by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, a non-profit, non-partisan organization located in San Jose, California. These reports focus on the fifty states within the U.S., and employ quantitative performance indicators to compare the states on six educational categories: preparation, participation, completion, affordability, benefits, and learning. Each state receives a letter grade (A through F) indicating its performance relative to top-performing states on each category, and as such the report represents a classic benchmarking exercise. The reports have garnered significant coverage in the media, and are used by state policymakers to examine the underlying policy issues that determine the grades. While the National Center does not advance explicit policy recommendations, the purpose of the Report Cards is to generate a conversation and further research within each state. Several states have extended the basic framework to the county-level, revealing how well (or how poorly) citizens of the state are served by their higher education systems.