Informing Policy with Practice

Posted by on January 30, 2004

[posted from Campus Compact Policy Update]

Informing Policy with Practice
http://nerche.org/hea/hea.html

With funding from The Ford Foundation, The New England Research Center for Higher Education, NERCHE, begins its fifth year of their project to contribute practitioners? insights to policy discussions. During this academic year, the project is using the occasion of the upcoming expiration of the Higher Education Act (September 30, 2004) to bridge the gap between what happens inside the Beltway and how it is interpreted and implemented on campuses. Each time the Act is up for extension or reauthorization, the Congress, the Department of Education, and the higher education community have the chance to reexamine the purposes of the Act and the programs that have been created to serve them. The reauthorization provides a forum for stakeholders to weigh in on major policy issues and the various options for addressing these issues. Much of the debate focuses on student aid programs and on making higher education affordable for students and families. However, there are indications that Congress is also interested in issues of quality and outcomes assessment as well.

While policy think tanks, national higher education organizations, and accreditation organizations are preparing for the reauthorization, the higher education community has been largely silent. However, we need to bring our institutional contexts into policy discussions about how national issues play out at the local level and are mitigated by variations in institutional type and mission. To address this need, this year NERCHE?s think tanks will focus some of their discussions on the reauthorization as it relates to their functional areas on campus. In the spring, we will hold an all-think-tank event inviting think tank members and their guests to participate with policymakers in an exchange of views and ideas.