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In response to this need for information, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) and the then-National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges (now the Association for Public and Land-Grant Universities, or APLU) developed the Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA) for the purpose of helping postsecondary institutions demonstrate accountability by providing accessible, understandable, and comparable information about the effective educational practices they engage in and the learning outcomes they generate. Through the College Portrait, participating institutions provide information on student and campus characteristics, cost, and progression and success rates, as well as student educational experiences on campus and student learning outcomes. With 70 percent of four-year college students attending one of AASCU’s or APLU’s member institutions, the …