Talent developers rather than talent identifiers
Astin, A. W. (1999, Spring). Rethinking academic "excellence". Liberal Education, 7-18. As institutions seek to compete with one another for higher rankins and ratings by external groups (i.e., U.S. News & World Report), the author argues for a different paradigm for evaluating institutional quality and impact.
Dr. Astin, former director of the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA, argues that more resources should be invested in improving the learning systems at colleges. Rather than measuring the quality of student freshmen, the focus should be on the value-added experience of the college and the degree to which it has been a "talent developer" of the students. This provides useful language in describing the current and future role of developmental education and learning assistance programs.