Abstract

This is an excerpt from the content“Accountability” used to be a term that applied primarily to K-12 education, especially following the passage of No Child Left Behind. However, the recent economic downturn and subsequent recovery prompted debates on whether the cost of pursuing a college degree is “worth it” for students. Students’ post-graduation debt and job market prospects have been publicly scrutinized as well as the operations of large research universities. Supporters of higher education posit that these critiques of the system impose a business model where it should not be as they emphasize outputs and efficiency over quality. At the same time, it is hard to ignore that calls for accountability in higher education are getting louder than ever before.In Accountability, Pragmatic Aims, and the American University, Ana M. Martínez-Alemán examines accountability from a historical perspective, arguing that accountability arose in the American university during the early part of the twentieth century. This rise coin