Last year, Tom Harkin asked the GAO to investigate the practices of several for-profit colleges. The results came out yesterday--and if they are to be believed, most students at these institutions aren't getting their money's worth.
Between October 2010 and last month, the investigators posed as students and tried to enroll in introductory online courses at 15 commercial colleges, 12 of which allowed them to use a fictitious home-school diploma or a diploma from a high school that had closed.
The students then tested the colleges’ academic practices by ignoring assignments; turning in incorrect, unresponsive or plagiarized homework; or failing to log in to class.
The full report is available here. Among other things, investigators were given passing grades despite submitting blatantly plagarized assignments, failing to take part in required chat sessions and in at least one case not even doing the assignment. Three of the schools didn't offer required exit counseling for withdrawing students with student loans.
The targeted schools weren't identified, but according to the report they included the five largest for-profit institutions in the nation--including the University of Phoenix.
The report did find that some schools did follow the rules.
At one college, when the undercover student logged in but did not submit any assignments or participate in discussions, the instructor repeatedly tried to contact her to offer help. At another, a student who failed to maintain the required 65 percent average for the first five weeks was expelled, with no financial obligation, as college policy required.
Harkin thinks this report is a pretty searing indictment of the for-profit education industry. In a statement, he called for Congress to step in to hold these schools to account.