Colleges have good reasons for not exposing their flaws, scholars said. Mark D. Soskin, associate professor of economics at the University of Central Florida, said, “Establishing standards or even publishing measured learning would reveal that the emperor, if not naked, has a much skimpier wardrobe than commonly presumed.”

Once inadequate teaching and learning are revealed, Soskin said, colleges have to face a number of difficult choices, such as making campus life less sociable, flunking more students and forcing faculty to undergo more training in how to teach — rather than just lecture — in their specialties. —Jay Matthews —Gauging, and Improving, How Colleges Teach (The Washington Post (Registration, will expire))