ACTA’s report The Cost of Chaos in the Curriculum reveals that the vast array of course choices given to college students is a cause of exploding costs and poor academic outcomes. And a bloated undergraduate curriculum is particularly detrimental to the success of students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. The report documents how at most colleges and universities an expansive list of general education choices have replaced the thoughtful and efficient core curriculum that was previously part of every student’s college education, and that by restoring a thorough and efficient core curriculum, colleges could save nearly 10% of educational costs per semester. The report also shows that graduation rates are higher with such a curriculum, and appropriate foundational courses provide what students need for success in career, community and citizenship.
With recent research from the Institute for Higher Education Policy showing that college is unaffordable for as many as 70% of working- and middle-class students, concerns about college costs are mounting. The cost of operating an institution of higher education, with very few exceptions, is reflected in the price of attendance that students, their families, […]
In this 10th edition of its flagship annual survey of college general education curricula, What Will They Learn?, ACTA shines a light on the wide disparity in academic standards at institutions of higher learning across the country. What Will They Learn? reviews the core curricula of over 1,100 four-year public and private institutions across the country […]
Read and admired throughout the world, Shakespeare’s plays and poetry have been the guiding light of statesmen, of authors, and of artists. His writings are the indispensable foundation for understanding English literature, language, and rhetoric. Yet less than 8% of the nation’s top universities require English majors to take even a single course that focuses […]
The Committee for Economic Development has provided one of the grimmest statistics in higher education, where there is already plenty of bad news. Between 1981 and 2011, the “sticker price” of tuition and fees rose five times faster than overall inflation. Cost is choking off access to higher education, and the $1.3 trillion in student […]
If the price of milk increased at the same rate as public university tuition, today a gallon would cost $14.72. To put this into perspective, the cost of public higher education rose an astounding 538 percent between 1985 and 2013 while health care costs rose 286 percent. If milk actually reached this price, parents would […]
Virginia has played a pivotal role throughout American history. Permanent English settlement began here. Virginia is the birthplace of eight U.S. presidents. On our soil the nation struggled for its independence and to end the curse of slavery. Despite our history, only two Virginia public universities — Christopher Newport and James Madison — require students […]
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