This article reports on Education Secretary Margaret Spellings' attempt to convince colleges that they risk painful government interventions if they do not improve the quality of their programs and help more students evaluate and afford them. As the Bush administration nears an end, Ms. Spellings tries to persuade colleges to adopt the measures recommended by her Commission on the Future of Higher Education. The secretary delivered her latest public warning on the subject at a conference in July to mark the second anniversary of her commission's report. The secretary's commission recommended in 2006 that institutions consider standardized tests and other methods for improving their educational quality and the confidence the public places in them. Many colleges have improved their self-assessment methods over the past two years. A few have even adopted standardized exams and publicized the results, and more are doing so. But many of those were moving in that direction before the Spellings Commission began urging them to do so. Many others remain resistant, believing that federal demands for accountability threaten the individualism and innovation that has kept America an admired global leader in higher education.