From Cathy Davidson, “Universities Are No More Illusory Than Journalists: Rsp to Kevin Carey and NYT”:

The reputational system of the classroom and of universities is all we’ve got. We need to build upon and improve upon that system–peer mentoring, honor codes, honor systems, and other internal checks and balances have been shown to have impact. With new ways of analyzing data, student evaluations can be (and need to be) vastly improved. Rankings can be vastly improved. (Why is selectivity rather than graduation rate a metric for high rankings? Why don’t we factor in the over-reliance on adjunct and contingent labor as a metric of quality?) Formative feedback systems can also be vastly improved. But the thing we need most is freedom to innovate, experiment, try new methods and models and pedagogies. We do not need, now, even more regulation and oversight and credentialing.

We need deep thought about our values…, about what university education is really for.

Read the whole post here.