BUFFALO, N.Y.—Calling growing student debt levels a "crisis,'' President Barack Obama laid out a plan Thursday aimed at reining in rising tuition costs by creating a system to rate colleges and eventually tie federal student aid to the institutions' performance.

The president called for rating colleges before the 2015 school year on measures such as affordability and graduation rates—"metrics like how much debt does the average student leave with, how easy is it to pay off, how many students graduate on time, how...