Spellings Unveils Plan for Higher Education

Secretary backs testing, student database, and streamlined aid process.

Washington

Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings last week outlined a bold plan to move forward on proposals in a federal commission’s report calling for a major shakeup of the nation’s higher education system.

Ms. Spellings announced that the Department of Education would seek to create a massive, searchable database to give parents and students more detailed information about individual colleges and universities. She proposed giving grants to states and postsecondary schools to develop assessments to measure student learning, while cautioning against “one-size-fits-all” standardized tests. And she outlined measures to streamline the federal financial-aid process.

Those proposals would help give parents and policymakers a sense of what students are gaining from their college...