Southern Utah University President Scott L Wyatt: “Here Are 5 Things That Should Be Done to Improve the US Educational System”

An Interview With Penny Bauder

Penny Bauder
Nov 6 · 12 min read

I would change the way we accredit and rank universities. These should be about the ends or the goals in education, rather than about the means to education. When U.S. News & World Report and others rank us, they look at the size of our financial endowment, library size, admission standards, what percentage of students do we turn away — just a long series of things. These all means. If they could stop looking at the means to the end and just look at the ends, it would shift the way we do business. We respond to the way we are assessed and measured as well. When you accredit or rank a university based on a long list of things, it tends to distract us from the ultimate goal and robs us of our focus on the outcomes. I would love to see us be ranked based on the marginal gains that students achieve while studying with us. We should test them when they come in, and test them when they go out. That should be the measure of accreditation and ranking.



Authority Magazine

Leadership Lessons from Authorities in Business, Film, Sports and Tech. Authority Mag is devoted primarily to sharing interesting feature interviews of people who are authorities in their industry. We use interviews to draw out stories that are both empowering and actionable.

Penny Bauder

Written by

Environmental scientist-turned-entrepreneur, Founder of Green Kid Crafts

Authority Magazine

Leadership Lessons from Authorities in Business, Film, Sports and Tech. Authority Mag is devoted primarily to sharing interesting feature interviews of people who are authorities in their industry. We use interviews to draw out stories that are both empowering and actionable.

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