"[A new] report by Education Sector, Lowering Student Loan Default Rates, is largely a historical look at how a consortium of historically black colleges and universities, faced with the prospect of federal penalties a decade ago, altered their policies and programs in ways that helped to lower their so-called cohort default rates and keep the colleges out of trouble," Inside Higher Ed reports. "[The authors said] 'The major takeaway from this is that institutional practices do matter ... The big lesson for for-profit institutions is that these institutions were able to decrease their default rates [more] than other institutions that enroll very similar student populations. Instead of blaming your default rates on the students you enroll, there are actually steps you can take to lower those rates.'"