When Bill Gates speaks, people in higher education listen. No single individual presently has more influence on public policy in the field. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is involved in numerous reform efforts, including the so-called completion agenda and the move to make higher ed. more data-driven and responsive to the digital age.
Recently, Mr. Gates addressed officials at the annual meeting of the National Association of College and University Business Officers, as reported by Lucie Lapovsky in Forbes.
Some of his reported remarks are expected, based on previous statements:
He [Mr. Gates] anticipates the rise of some outstanding MOOCs that will beg the question of the role of the professor. He sees a day when the lecture component of a class is a commodity much like a textbook is today. He sees a future with better pedagogy provided by a few and colleges and universities providing the social context to motivate students.
However, there is a cautionary note regarding the move toward performance funding:
He [Mr. Gates] is concerned that the for-profit sector, along with community colleges and some less competitive colleges, may be forced to “cherry pick” better students in order to meet outcomes goals that may come into play as we move towards performance funding. He noted that equal opportunity will be threatened if this happens. He urged us to make sure that we don’t create incentives so that schools do not take the difficult students yet he noted that we need to become much more effective in helping these students succeed.
Cherry-picking can apply not only to performance funding, but also to the current policy shift in Texas to place low performing students (based on test scores) in Adult Basic Education rather than developmental education. Take these at-risk students out of the calculation and the success percentages will rise, but at what social cost?