When people talk about education, they are usually mixing together several ideas. The first is the idea of teaching and learning. That is what the bulk of this book is about—how can we rethink the best ways to learn. The second is the idea of socialization. That, too, we have touched on when discussing peer-to-peer collaboration and mixed-age classrooms. The third is the idea of credentialing—giving a piece of paper to someone that proves to the world that they know what they know. These three different aspects of education are muddled together because today they are all performed by the same institutions—you go to college to learn, have a life experience, and get a degree.
Let’s try a simple thought experiment: What if we were to separate (or decouple) the teaching and credentialing roles of universities? What would happen if regardless of where (or whether) you went to college, you could take rigorous, internationally recognized assessments that measured your understanding and proficiency in various fields—anything from quantum physics to European history to software engineering. Some could be assessments designed in conjunction with employers looking for people with particular skills. Because these assessments could be even more thorough than what happens during exam time at many universities, they might be expensive, maybe $300 a pop. You could also take these exams at any age.
Think about the implications. Most students who go to college are not going to nationally known private colleges like Princeton or Rice or Duke. They are also not going to well-known state universities like Berkeley, UT Austin, or the University of Michigan. The great majority of students go to not-well-known regional or community colleges. This is especially the case for students from underrepresented communities because these schools have more open admissions and tend to be more affordable (although they can still be quite expensive). Even if a student gets an amazing education at these schools they are at a marked disadvantage. Because employers use the “difficulty of getting in” to a school as a proxy for the quality of its graduates, the students from less well-known schools often fail to pass the résumé screen. College is all about opening up opportunity, but the reality is that the ultra-smart, ultra-hardworking kid from a poor family, who worked full-time while getting good grades at a regional school or community college, will almost always be passed over when compared to someone graduating from a more well-known and selective school.
With our hypothetical assessments—microcredentials if you will—anyone could prove that they know just as much in a specific domain as someone with an exclusive diploma. Even more, they wouldn’t have had to go into debt and attend university to prove it. They could prepare through textbooks, the Khan Academy, or tutorials from a family member. Because even name-brand diplomas give employers limited information, it would be a way for even elite college graduates to differentiate themselves from their peers, to show that they actually have retained deep, useful skills. In short, it would make the credential that most students and parents need cheaper (since it is an assessment that is not predicated on seat time in lecture halls) and more powerful—it would actually tell employers who is best ready to contribute at their organizations based on metrics that they find important.
Now, I do not think this will eliminate the need or value of universities for many students. If you are lucky enough to attend a good university, you will be immersed in a community of inspiring peers and professors doing amazing things. You will build social bonds that are at least as valuable—emotionally and economically—as that first job out of college. You will have life experiences that are priceless. The universities themselves will continue to conduct cutting-edge research that pushes society forward (and in which undergrads can often participate). The signal to employers of getting in and being socialized in these types of communities will always carry weight. College will become something similar to an MBA. It will be optional. You can have a very successful career without it, but it is a great life experience that will probably help if you can afford the time and money.
What this will change is the opportunities and the ecosystem for the great majority of students who aren’t given the luxury to attend a name-brand school, because now they’d have the opportunity to—at minimum—work toward a recognized credential in whatever way they see fit. It would allow a forty-year-old laid-off factory worker to show that they still have the analytical skills and brain plasticity to work alongside twenty-two-year-old college grads in a twenty-first-century job. It would allow anyone, in any field, to better themselves and prepare for valuable credentials without the sacrifice of money and time that today’s higher education demands.