What?

U.S. News & World Report reports.

What’s the Best College? Decide for Yourself, Feds Say

The Education Department will release a tool officials say ‘will become a form of public accountability.’

It’s like promising a five-course meal, but giving guests just the ingredients – and without a recipe.

After nearly two years of discussion, planning and fanfare, the Department of Education announced on Thursday it will release a college rating system this summer – it just won’t be used to rate colleges.

Department officials instead said they plan to release a consumer-oriented tool by summer’s end that will provide a plethora of data points for students and families to use in their college searches and “reach their own conclusions.”

“We’ve recognized that there is great value in the colleges and universities who serve students from all backgrounds and provide them with a quality education at an affordable price – and that spending more money and excluding more students are not necessarily signs of quality,” Jamienne Studley, deputy undersecretary for postsecondary education, wrote in a blog post on Thursday.