The disengagement compact has been most discussed — and lamented — by educators convinced that engagement with teachers builds student competence in critical thinking, analytical reasoning, problem solving, and writing.
Beginning in 2000, educator and author Murray Sperber brought the disengagement compact to the attention of the general reading public, emphasizing its upsurge in large research universities.
[11] This study's authors wrote, "There is no indication that the rise in grades at public and private schools has been accompanied by an increase in student achievement.
"[14] Other scholars have interpreted the combination of fewer reading assignments, reduced study time, and higher grades as evidence for the disengagement compact.
In the 21st century, according to Arum and Roksa, "[U]ndergraduate learning is peripheral to the concerns of the vast majority of those involved with the higher-education system.
[21] To absorb enrollees not prepared for traditional post-secondary academic challenges, colleges necessarily changed admissions criteria and institutional practices after 1965.
That so many parents would spend tens of thousands of dollars and risk imprisonment for felony crimes testifies to the credential value assigned to acceptance by the selective colleges involved in the scheme.
Boyer's Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate also found that 25 per cent of four-year college faculty reported that student course evaluations were very important in their institutions' tenure decisions.
[28] Colleges have trended over the last half-century to assign undergraduate teaching responsibilities more to non-tenured and adjunct instructors and less to tenured and tenure-track faculty.
A question for the future is whether the disengagement compact threatens the persistence of college as the universally preferred next station for students after high school.
"[33] Analysts less invested in maintaining the pre-eminence of colleges have argued for broadening the field of reputable paths that high school graduates can pursue.
Yale now offers college credits to students who complete an online computer training session at the unaccredited Flatiron School.