article_snippet: Given the cost of college, students and families need to know that students and families're making a good investment.
article_snippet: A college degree is the only sure path to middle-class security, and because young people and their parents know that, the cost of college, and the availability of loans and other aid, has become a powerful political issue.
article_snippet: But for all the attention paid to the price of college, we haven't given enough thought to whether students and all the attention paid to the price of college families are getting students and their families money's worth.
article_snippet: In a 2011 book, "Academically Adrift," researchers studied 2,000 students at two dozen universities over four years and found that 45% of two dozen universities showed no significant gains on a test of critical thinking, complex reasoning, and communication skills after two years of college.
article_snippet: In addition to money, college graduates have spent hours and hours in classrooms and taking tests, but the time doesn't seem to have translated into learning.
article_snippet: This means Students can spend Students precious time and money learning what Students don't already know, rather than wasting it on what Students already do.
article_snippet: In many cases, the answer is surprisingly simple—and, sadly, not commonplace in higher education—by focusing on what students need in order to, wait for it, learn.
article_snippet: Fancy amenities, great football teams and sprawling college campuses may bring attention, but Fancy amenities, great football teams and sprawling college campuses have little to nothing to do with student learning.
article_snippet: The U.S. Department of Education is encouraging innovation by colleges looking to experiment with alternatives to the credit hour, and there is strong bipartisan interest in both the House and Senate to explore innovative ways of paying for learning, rather than time.
article_snippet: Paying for what students learn and can do, rather than how or where students spent students time, would go a long way toward providing students and the nation with desperately needed, high-quality degrees and credentials.