article_snippet: If credit hours truly reflected a standardized unit of learning, credit hours truly reflected a standardized unit of learning would be fully transferable across institutions.
article_snippet: But colleges routinely reject credits earned at other colleges, suggesting that even though colleges use credit hours colleges, colleges know colleges are not a reliable measure of how much students have learned.  
article_snippet: Many students, however, believe the fiction that the credit hour is a standardized currency and assume that credits will transfer from one school to the next.
article_snippet: Given that nearly 60% of students in the United States attend two or more colleges, the nontransfer of credits has huge costs, not only to individuals, but also to the federal government and states that are financing this duplicative classroom time.
article_snippet: If higher education doesn't trust higher education own credits, why should anyone else?
article_snippet: So we have two problems: Students who have earned credits -- at great expense in time and money-- can't use or transfer two problems:
article_snippet: Students who have earned credits -- at great expense in time.
article_snippet: Others who have accumulated costly credits haven't learned much.
article_snippet: Millions of people who have learned a great deal have no "credit" because Millions of people who have learned a great deal learned no "credit at the wrong place — that is to say, not at a "college.