Reconsidering the Carnegie Unit:
Is it time for a new measure?
National Institute on the Assessment of Adult Learning
June 2013
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The Best Measure We Have?
The Carnegie Unit, or credit hour, is a
common standard, language, and currency
in American education. It is efficient for
administration, ubiquitous in policy and
practice, remarkably durable, and deeply
engrained in how we understand the
educational process.
It is also a flawed proxy for student
learning.
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Why not measure learning
directly?
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Pensions for Professors
“I have reached the conclusion that the least rewarded of all the professions is that of the teacher in our higher educational institutions...
I have, therefore, transferred to you and your successors, as Trustees, $10,000,000… to provide retiring pensions for the teachers of universities, colleges and technical schools...” ‐Andrew Carnegie, April 16, 1905
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Standards for Higher Education
“An institution to be ranked as a
college, must have at least six
professors giving their entire time to
college and university work, a course
of four full years in liberal arts and
sciences, and should require for
admission, not less than the usual
four years of academic or high school
preparation, or its equivalent.”
1906
-First Annual Report of Carnegie Foundation,
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Standards for High School
“College entrance requirements are
designated in terms of units, a unit
being a course of five periods weekly
throughout an academic year of the
preparatory school…14 units
constitute the minimum amount of
preparation.”
-First Annual Report of the Carnegie
Foundation, 1906
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Too Much Standardization?
• States and institutions criticize the “conditions
attached to the privilege of participation” and
decry the “Carnegieizing” of higher education.
• Institutional leaders and faculty criticize the unit
for being a “mechanical measure of hours.” They
struggle to report the exact number of periods
per week taught by faculty: “The term ‘hour’ is a
very uncertain unit. I have tried, for instance, to
equalize the work of the assistants but I believe
that Mr__’s 15 hours represents more than
Mr__’s 18.”
‐1908 Annual Report
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Or Not Enough?
• Morris Cooke 1910 report, “Academic and
Industrial Efficiency”. “The most notable feature
of collegiate administration is the entire absence
of uniformity or accepted standardization.”
• Noting no gauge to efficiency, Cooke
recommends the use of “the most immediately
available unit, the student hour…With this as a
basis, we can get some tally on the efficiency
with which the buildings are operated, the cost of
undergraduate teaching, and other items which
go to make up the expenses of a university.”
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The Unit Spreads Fast and Far
• Within a decade, the Carnegie Unit becomes the
foundation for high school and college standards
across the country.
• By mid-century, the Unit is deeply embedded in:
– Federal Financial Aid—Post GI Bill, linked to Title
IV funds
– Federal reporting—by 1960s, federal data on
higher education centered on the credit hour
– State budget formulas—as higher education
expands to multi-campus systems
– Institutional faculty work-load, student admissions,
transfer and degree requirements, and more…
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Calls for Innovation in Higher Education
The Carnegie Commission on Higher Education and the
Carnegie Council on Policy Studies in Higher Education:
– Flying A Learning Center: "learning pavilions" for
independent instruction (proposed in metro libraries).
– Less Time, More Options: “more inventive
arrangements"--extension programs, correspondence
courses, instruction through "electronic delivery
systems” and open university models
– The Fourth Revolution: educational technology
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35 Years Later: New Demands for
Change
 Completion agenda—more students to serve
overall, including adult “working learners” and
military
 Outcomes-based accountability pressures—from
regulatory bodies, consumers and industry
 Cost crisis—rising institutional costs, tuition and
student debt
 K-12—common core state standards, college and
career ready focus
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Policy Responses
• Federal endorsement of degree programs that do
not rely on credit hour, and approval of first degree
program—SNHU’s College for America—to use
direct assessment instead of time-based measure
of progress.
• Proposed changes to accreditation system
• Federal programs to link high school to career and
college—career academies, dual-enrollment, and
early college programs. Also USDOL community
college grants—e.g. Austin, Sinclair, Broward
partnership for IT curriculum
• Waivers for innovation, policy definitions for
“competency”
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Large Scale Efforts to Develop
Standards
A focus on outcome standards, nationally
and internationally:
Bologna Process
Degree Qualifications Frameworks
 Tuning
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Alternative Ways to Award Credit
Prior learning assessment
Direct assessment
Competency-based programs
Distance education, MOOCs, and
hybrids
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The End of Time? And Other
Questions…
1. The difference between custom and common standards--can
we define and measure “competencies” at scale?
2. K-12 and higher education are moving toward non-timebased credit models on separate, parallel tracks. How and
when to bridge efforts?
3. As online learning expands and new credit models develop,
what happens to program and degree structure?
4. Policy is important, but evidence in practice is essential.
What can we learn from existing efforts to measure learning
without time?
5. Do we need different units for administrative and academic
purposes?
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Contact
Elena Silva
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
DC Office
901 E Street, NW
Washington, DC 20004
(650) 566-5155
[email protected]
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