Criticism of college and university rankings (2007 United States)
Encyclopedia
Criticism of college and university rankings
(2007 United States) refers to a 2007 movement which developed among faculty and administrators in American Institutions of Higher Education. It follows previous movements in the U.S. and Canada
(by schools in the 1990s such as Reed College
, Stanford University
, Alma College
, as well as a number of universities in Canada in 2006) which have criticized the practice of college rankings.
began to question the impact of rankings
on the college admissions process
, due in part to the 11 March 2007 Washington Post article "The Cost of Bucking College Rankings" by Dr. Michele Tolela Myers (the former President of Sarah Lawrence College
). As Sarah Lawrence College
dropped its SAT
test score submission requirement for its undergraduate applicants in 2003
(thus joining the SAT optional movement for undergraduate admission
), SLC does not have SAT data to send to U.S. News for its national survey. Of this decision, Myers states, "We are a writing-intensive school, and the information produced by SAT scores added little to our ability to predict how a student would do at our college; it did, however, do much to bias admission in favor of those who could afford expensive coaching sessions. Currently, Sarah Lawrence is one of only a few American colleges that completely disregard SAT scores in the admission process.
As a result of this policy, in the same Washington Post article, Dr. Myers stated that: "I was recently informed by the director of data research at U.S. News, the person at the magazine who has a lot to say about how the rankings are computed, that absent students' SAT scores, the magazine will calculate the college's ranking by assuming an arbitrary average SAT score of one standard deviation (roughly 200 points) below the average score of our peer group. In other words, in the absence of real data, they will make up a number. He made clear to me that he believes that schools that do not use SAT scores in their admission process are admitting less capable students and therefore should lose points on their selectivity index."
Myers further stated that "several faculty members and deans suggested that perhaps it was time to stop playing ranking roulette and opt out of the survey." Myers next argued that at the NEAIR 33rd Annual Conference ( North East Association for Institutional Research) in 2006, a talk given by U.S. News, "indicated that if a school stops sending data, the default assumption will be that it performs one standard deviation below the mean on numerous factors for which U.S. News can't find published data. Again, making up the numbers it can't get. The message is clear. Unless we are willing to be badly misrepresented, we had better send the information the magazine wants."
, was sent to college and university presidents in the United States
in May 2007, concerning the U.S. News and World Report college rankings. The letter does not ask for a full boycott but rather states that:
Instead, it asks presidents not to participate in the "reputational survey" portion of the overall survey (this section accounts for 25% of the total rank and asks college presidents to give their subjective opinion of other colleges). The letter also asks presidents not to use the rankings as a form of publicity:
(which represents over 100 liberal arts colleges
), members discussed the letter to college presidents. As a result, "a majority of the approximately 80 presidents at the meeting said that they did not intend to participate in the U.S. News reputational rankings in the future." However, the decision to fill out the reputational survey or not will be left up to each individual college as: "the Annapolis Group is not a legislative body and any decision about participating in the US News rankings rests with the individual institutions."
The statement also said that its members "have agreed to participate in the development of an alternative common format that presents information about their colleges for students and their families to use in the college search process." This database will be web based and developed in conjunction with higher education organizations including the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities
and the Council of Independent Colleges
.
The new database was described in TIME
magazine as "a web-based alternative to the rankings that is being spearheaded by the 900-member National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. NAICU's easy-to-read template, which is expected to be rolled out by hundreds of schools in September, allows students and their families to pull up extensive information organized in an objective format that includes such data as what percentage of students graduate in four years compared to those who graduate in five or six years."
" of a college that we can't measure through statistical data
. Plus, the reputation
of a school can help get that all-important first job and plays a key part in which grad school someone will be able to get into. The peer survey is by nature subjective
, but the technique of asking industry leaders to rate their competitors is a commonly accepted practice. The results from the peer survey also can act to level the playing field between private
and public colleges
."
In reference to the alternative database discussed by the Annapolis Group
, Morse also argued, "it's important to point out that the Annapolis Group's stated goal of presenting college data in a common format has been tried before [...] U.S. News has been supplying this exact college information for many years already. And it appears that NAICU will be doing it with significantly less comparability and functionality. U.S. News first collects all these data (using an agreed-upon set of definitions from the Common Data Set). Then we post the data on our website in easily accessible, comparable tables. In other words, the Annapolis Group and the others in the NAICU initiative actually are following the lead of U.S. News."
A debate on this issue was published as a podcast
in the 25 June 2007 issue of Inside Higher Ed
. The debate was between Lloyd Thacker, director of the Education Conservancy
, who is a well known critic of the U.S. News rankings, and U.S. News editor Brian Kelly. The debate was moderated by Inside Higher Ed reporter, Scott Jaschik.
, and president of Gettysburg College
, Katherine Haley Will
, discussed this decision further in a 9 July 2007 article for The Washington Post
. In this article, Hill states that this decision was not based upon "a lack of concern about providing accurate, comprehensive information to help students and their families make decisions about college." Rather, she argued against the methodology of the U.S. News rankings. In particular, she argues against "the largest single factor in the U.S. News rating formula" which is the reputational survey as, "it is unrealistic to expect academic officials to know enough about hundreds of institutions to fairly evaluate the quality of their programs." Hill then argues that, "by contrast, 1 percent of the U.S. News ratings formula is assigned to student-to-faculty ratios, which many faculty members and students consider the most important factor in educational experience." Hill states that the members of the Annapolis Group will offer the same information in an alternative, free, format which will not rank schools, as, "an educational experience can't be reduced to one number, a school's so-called rank. The simplicity of a rank is understandably more appealing than spending hours poring over college catalogues and visiting campuses, but myriad complex variables can't be reduced to a single number." Instead, Hill asks students and parents to "compare schools on a variety of factors [...] they should visit campuses and go on what feels like a good match rather than relying on filtered or secondhand information. We must encourage students to look inside their hearts and trust their instincts when it comes to choosing a college, not whether parents or friends think a university is cool or prestigious."
president John Griffith, compared this movement to a form of revolution
: "I have lived long enough to come to the conclusion that major shifts occur every quarter century or so in the way American culture approaches matters of importance. We often call those shifts revolutions because people revolt against old and outmoded ways of doing things in favor of new approaches, new technologies and new ideas that better meet the needs of the time. We have experienced revolutions in information technology, travel and communication. There is one going on now that is symbolized by the introduction of iPhone
s this past week; we know what this one is about. But there is another revolution going on related to choosing a college -- and the role that public rankings play in that choice -- that may be less clear."
, correlating a high ranking on the survey with institutional wealth. President of Muhlenberg College
, Peyton Helm, argued that "most of the other factors weighted by U.S. News in their rankings (in a secret formula they will not reveal, that is changed every year, and that independent researchers have been unable to replicate) are based, ultimately, on institutional wealth [...] A trustee once asked me what it would take for Muhlenberg to be ranked in the top five by U.S. News. My answer was simple: A check for $800 million placed directly in the endowment would do it -- even if we never changed another thing we were doing." Helms also noted that, "what you won't read in U.S. News is that most of the data they use is public information, readily available on the Web sites of most colleges and universities, as well as on the U.S. Department of Education Web site. There is no single formula for weighting these factors -- they will have different significance for different students and families. So, next year I and many other leaders of our nation's best colleges and universities will be working on a new and better Web-based tool for families engaged in the college search." Millsaps College
president, Frances Lucas, further noted that, "she previously had paid little attention to the rankings debate because her own institution was rated highly in U.S. News. But after learning more about the magazine's methodology and discussing the issue with colleagues at this week's meeting, she concluded that the rankings were based too heavily on measurements determined by institutional wealth."
, Philander Smith College
, argued that U.S. News, "focuses on institutional resources, student selectivity and graduation rates to select the top institutions. But since many HBCU
s struggle with these issues, he says the rankings in effect discourage students from going to those schools [...] If there are people looking at the rankings as a measurement of the quality of an institution, they think [HBCUs] do not have any type of qualities [...] [The rankings] do not tell you who the best schools are, just the most privileged.",
, Michele Tolela Myers, in discussing her decision to no longer submit information to U.S. News, stated, "they will do what they will do, [...] we will do what we will do. And we want to do it in a principled way." Myers also indicated in a press release for the college magazine, Sarah Lawrence, that the college will be involved in developing the new database of colleges discussed in the Annapolis Group
statement as they "believe in accountability and openness, and that the public has a right to solid and reliable information about the important decisions involved in choosing a college." The press release also indicated that Sarah Lawrence "plans not to participate in the peer reputational survey or data collection for U.S. News and World Report’s rankings" as, according to Myers, "by submitting data and the peer reputation survey we have tacitly been endorsing these rankings [...] all the information we have provided to U.S. News in the past will be available to the public through other channels.”
Other presidents have also commented on the reputational survey. Former president of Scripps College
, Nancy Y. Bekavac
also stated in a press release on the college website that Scripps will also no longer submit the Reputational Survey to U.S. News as "for years we have known of flaws in the methodology; many of us have spoken with editors at U.S. News in an attempt to improve its approach [...] but nothing can really improve a system that seeks to reduce 3,300 educational programs in American
higher education
to one set of numbers, and then rank them. College presidents, academic deans and deans of admission do not know enough about other institutions to make meaningful comparisons. This gives a false sense of reliability to what is a ranking system without any real validity." Sweet Briar College
president, Elizabeth S. Muhlenfeld stated that, "one of our colleagues likened it to trying to rank composers. It's a great analogy
. How can you say that Beethoven
and Brahms
are better than Mahler
or Mozart
?" Trinity Washington University
president Patricia McGuire argued that, "the survey asks me to 'rate the academic quality of undergraduate programs,' assigning each school a single score using a 1-to-5 scale from 'marginal' to 'distinguished.' That I have little real information about these 181 institutions does not seem to matter to the U.S. News editors [...] Some of the actual best colleges in this nation do not fare well in the U.S. News survey because they do not have the wealth
, big-time sports notoriety or public relations
clout
to influence the peer voting system." Finally, DePauw University
president, Robert G. Bottoms, argued that, "I, in fact, did not fill out the reputational survey for this past year. I came to the conclusion that I am not in a position to make judgments on other schools, many of which I have little or no familiarity with. The fact that one quarter of a college's ranking is based upon what is, in essence, its popularity, is very disturbing and we choose not to be a part of the process."
, president of Vassar College
, took a different approach to the question of the reputational survey. She argued that, "many of us in higher education dislike popular college rankings such as the annual academic beauty pageant from US News & World Report. But expecting them to go away is naive, and attempting to undermine them is unwise since students and families could perceive that as petulant and paternalistic. Worse, it could seem as if we have something to hide." Rather than not sending in the reputation survey, she argued, it would be of value to focus on, "a third-party non-profit or foundation", sending them "the same data that we already submit to US News and other rating organizations." On this point, she argues, "a one-size ranking does not fit all, because students and families care about different things [...] What if a school doesn't use the SAT in making admissions decisions and therefore doesn't collect or report these data? In a new system, that school couldn't be ranked if a student chose a positive weight for the SATs. Students would know that the school doesn't value that piece of information. They could then run the rankings with other information (maybe class rank and other indicators of academic achievement), excluding the SAT, and see what those rankings look like. Alternatively, they could decide they actually do care about the average SATs of the student body and decide to look at other schools. Fair enough."
, college choice, and the rankings. David McGrath, emeritus professor of English, College of DuPage
, discussed his own decision to attend Chicago State University
in the 24 July 2007 Chicago Tribune
article, Ode to a fourth-tier college. Of this decision, he noted that, "I qualified for admission elsewhere, but CSU was close to my part-time job, and it was cheap [...] I never required a student loan since I earned enough as a grocery bagger to pay tuition and fees in 1970 that totaled $300 per year. All told, a pretty good value, even for a fourth-tier school." McGrath considered it a "good value," because, "CSU eventually led to a teaching career, and my working alongside professors from Princeton
, Northwestern
, and the University of Chicago
. I earned the same ample salary and benefits as they, and, more important, was privileged to engage in the same kind of fulfilling work." He also referenced the 2000 Krueger-Dale study (which compared groups of students who received the same SAT
scores, attended both high and low-income schools, and found no difference in post-graduation success rates ) and noted that, "too often, it seems, students choose colleges the way they choose jeans or athletic shoes. They would rather bust the family budget than be caught dead in sweats bearing an unrecognizable school logo. But it's their ability, work ethic and dedication that determine the height of their achievement."
Author and journalist, Peter Sacks, narrows the argument by suggesting a direct correlation between the wealth of school and its rank. He suggests that "the ranking amounts to little more than a pseudo-scientific
and yet popularly legitimate tool for perpetuating inequality
between educational haves and have nots -- the rich families
from the poor ones
, and the well-endowed schools from the poorly endowed ones
. Toss in the most heavily weighted factor in the U.S. News survey, the assessment of deans, college presidents, admissions officials and others regarding their peer institutions (a beauty contest that constitutes a full 25 percent of the U.S. News ranking), and you get the perfect recipe for a self-perpetuating, class-based rankings system driven by brand names, marketing hype, and prestige."
The graduate made an incorrect inference from the averages and thought Shepherd was arbitrarily turning new students away below a higher fixed ACT or SAT score.
Dr. Westbrook clarified the situation first by explaining that every university or college is going to meet its enrollment quota with the best students available, and asked where both Marshall University and Shepherd University got their students.
Marshall typically recruited from Cabell, Logan, Wayne, and Putnam Counties, WV, and Lawrence County, OH.
Shepherd typically recruited both from West Virginia, both locally in the Eastern Panhandle and in the interior of and elsewhere in the state, and from the comparatively wealthy Maryland and Virginia suburbs surrounding Washington D.C.
Dr. Westbrook made the point that SAT and ACT scores are an indirect measure of socioeconomic status. County kindergarten to twelfth-grade school boards are funded by property taxes assessed on home values. At nearly the end of grade school, a college-bound student takes the SAT or ACT.
The difference between Shepherd University and Marshall University is that Shepherd recruited more from areas whose home values were higher, whose homeowners paid more in property taxes, whose school systems were better funded, and whose students benefitted as a result, took the SAT or ACT, some of whom applied to Shepherd University and were accepted, and attended.
Colleges and universities, then, have less control over setting their ACT and SAT requirements than the graduate assumed and than most parents might imagine. Parents need to understand that large scale political and economic forces such as the level of Federal employment and commensurate income around Washington, or other regional differences in living standards, have more to do setting ACT and SAT requirements than the decisions of college committees trying to enroll the best students they can under the circumstances over which they have no control.
, Sarah E. Wald, noted, "the rankings purport to give an overall order to colleges and graduate schools to help students make the best decisions about where to attend school. But universities all know how misleading and even destructive these rankings can be. It's common knowledge how the statistics can be 'gamed.' Colleges can solicit applications from students with little chance of acceptance to boost how selective they appear. Schools can adjust when they allow faculty to take leave in order to raise the faculty/student ratio. And admitting more "risky" students on transfer rather than in the initial class results in a higher freshman SAT average."
Professor Marty Kaplan
of the USC Annenberg School for Communication
further argued that, "the problem with U.S. News' college rankings isn't that institutions of higher education shouldn't be held accountable for the quality of services they provide [...] The problem is that the fierce competition among colleges to raise their rankings torques the priorities of colleges toward the criteria that U.S. News uses [...] So this week, when an association of 80 liberal arts college presidents, including Barnard, Sarah Lawrence and Kenyon, announced that a majority of them would no longer participate in the U.S. News annual survey, and that they would fashion their own way to collect and report common data, it was bad news for the magazine, but good news for families. It's also good news for American higher education, some of whose institutions may now become less timid about accepting the quirky applicant, less nuts about generating journalistic puff pieces, and more bold about declaring (and living up to) unique educational missions that don't derive from focus groups.
Senior scholar at The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
, Alexander C. McCormick, adds to the above discussion by arguing against the way in which the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education
is used in the creation of U.S. News rankings. The problem, he argues, with this use is that there is "no basis for inferring national versus regional focus, because it’s not a factor in the classification criteria. So it should come as no surprise that the national and regional lists contain a great many inconsistencies and bizarre placements [...] By continuing to rely on the Carnegie Classification, they avoid the tough job of defining their terms."
s to this criticism.
, entitled They Protest Too Much, published on 28 June 2007 in which he quotes John J. Miller as stating, "the magazine's editors and writers aren't interfering with higher education so much as responding to a consumer
demand for more information about it. The demand exists because colleges and universities are among the least accountable institutions in American life [...] the U.S. News rankings indisputably measure something—and something is better than nothing, which is why parents of high school students pore over the magazine's tables and charts. This is rational behavior for people on the verge of spending more huge sums of money on the education of a single child. Like wise investors, they want to know if they're getting a good deal." He also refers to the 27 June 2007 Washington Post op-ed, A College Course in Cynicism
, in which he quotes Robert Samuelson as stating, "[w]hat's so shameful about this campaign against the rankings is its anti-intellectualism
. Much information is in some way incomplete or imperfect. The proper response to evidence that you dislike or dispute is to supplement or discredit it with better evidence. The wrong response is to suppress it. And yet, that's the agenda of these college presidents. By not cooperating with the U.S. News survey, they hope to sabotage the rankings. They say they'll provide superior information. But they want to control what parents and students see. This is soft censorship
.What their students will learn, if they're paying attention, is a life lesson in cynicism: how eminent authorities cloak their self-interest in high-sounding, deceptive rhetoric."
, Neil Weissman, responded to Robert Samuelson's rebuttal, in the 30 June 2007 Letter to the Editor, for the Washington Post, College Rankings Are Lame Science, in which he states, "when Dickinson College chose not to participate in the U.S. News and World Report rankings of colleges, I imagined the decision would evoke some criticism, but never the charge Robert J. Samuelson made of 'anti-intellectualism' [op-ed, June 27]. 'Intellectual
' to me means thoughtful
. The problem with the U.S. News rankings is that they are not 'intellectual.' They are, as some higher education experts label them, lame science
. Mr. Samuelson also missed the point in suggesting nonparticipating colleges are trying to censor U.S. News. The magazine is of course free to continue its rankings, as are others. We are simply saying that we will not participate in an exercise that, in our view, misleads prospective students more than it helps and drives up college costs by encouraging spending in pursuit of rankings on a fictional prestige ladder invented by U.S. News."
at Elon University
, Michael Skube, argued in the editorial, "The No. 1 reason to rank colleges," against arguments made in the 11 March Washington Post article, "The Cost of Bucking College Rankings" by the President of Sarah Lawrence College
, Michele Tolela Myers. Skube states that, while having some merit, these arguments were "partly beside the point [...] U.S. News survey, for all its imperfections, performs the useful service of comparing apples with academic apples.In some ways, one might even argue that its nuts-and-bolts consumer information is at least as practical as the bar charts and numbers a car buyer might find in Consumer Reports or Car and Driver. What factors go into the rankings? Student retention accounts for 25% at schools U.S. News calls master's level and those that provide primarily the bachelor's degree (called 'comprehensive' schools, oddly enough)." Skube also notes objections made to the reputation survey portion of the U.S. News survey and responds by stating that, "one can see why." However, he argues, "sometimes just the facts will do, and the U.S. News manual offers them in great heaps [...] Sarah Lawrence, for example, does not take into consideration SAT
or ACT
scores. Don't even send 'em, it tells high school students. That tells me all I need to know about Sarah Lawrence. It tells me that Sarah Lawrence doesn't take aptitude as seriously as I'd like. The university depends far more on high school grades, which, as anyone who has taught at the college level knows, cannot be trusted. If last year's freshman classes at several colleges all had composite high school grade point averages of 3.6 to 3.8, I don't know how the intellectual caliber of one differs from another. But if one college attracted high school students whose SATs averaged 1100 to 1200, and another attracted students with SATs averaging 1300 to 1400, I know the latter is more selective. Sarah Lawrence might not care about such things, but I do."
, Michele Tolela Myers, responded to Michael Skube's rebuttal in the 12 July 2007 Letter to the Editor for the Los Angeles Times, "Argument may be a rank disgrace." On the general topic of U.S. News methodology, she states, "what many of us dispute is the validity of a single score computed by using "data points" to which weights are arbitrarily ascribed (why should retention count for 20% instead of 30%; why is peer assessment 25% instead of 10%; and who decides?). How can a single measure be valid when, in some cases, values are made up when they are not provided (the case of the missing SATs at Sarah Lawrence — the point of my Washington Post Op-Ed)? However, that's exactly what U.S. News does each year. Professional statisticians have reported that the methodology used by the magazine is seriously flawed and cannot be trusted." She also responds to Skube's discussion of Sarah Lawrence's decision not to consider SAT or ACT scores by stating, "Skube says he knows 'all he needs to know about Sarah Lawrence' because the college does not use SAT scores in its admission process, and therefore he infers we don't take aptitude seriously. Perhaps he doesn't know the research showing that SAT tests do not measure aptitude and at best provide a guess about academic performance in the first year of college. I do not think Elon University's SAT scores tell all there is to know about Elon. To think so would be falling into the trap of using one single measure as a proxy for the complex nature of any college. Which is precisely why the rankings are flawed."
College and university rankings
College and university rankings are lists of institutions in higher education, ordered by combinations of factors. In addition to entire institutions, specific programs, departments, and schools are ranked...
(2007 United States) refers to a 2007 movement which developed among faculty and administrators in American Institutions of Higher Education. It follows previous movements in the U.S. and Canada
Criticism of college and university rankings (North America)
Criticism of college and university rankings refers to movements which developed among faculty and administrators in American Institutions of Higher Education as well as in Canada.-Reed College:...
(by schools in the 1990s such as Reed College
Reed College
Reed College is a private, independent, liberal arts college located in southeast Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus located in Portland's Eastmoreland neighborhood, featuring architecture based on the Tudor-Gothic style, and a forested canyon wilderness...
, Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, Alma College
Alma College
Alma College is a private, liberal arts college located in Alma, Michigan. The enrollment is approximately 1,400 students, and the college is accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. The college's 13th President, Dr...
, as well as a number of universities in Canada in 2006) which have criticized the practice of college rankings.
Sarah Lawrence College
In 2007, some educators in the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
began to question the impact of rankings
College and university rankings
College and university rankings are lists of institutions in higher education, ordered by combinations of factors. In addition to entire institutions, specific programs, departments, and schools are ranked...
on the college admissions process
College admissions in the United States
College admissions in the United States refers to the annual process of applying to institutions of higher education in the United States for undergraduate study. This usually takes place during the senior year of high school...
, due in part to the 11 March 2007 Washington Post article "The Cost of Bucking College Rankings" by Dr. Michele Tolela Myers (the former President of Sarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College is a private liberal arts college in the United States, and a leader in progressive education since its founding in 1926. Located just 30 minutes north of Midtown Manhattan in southern Westchester County, New York, in the city of Yonkers, this coeducational college offers...
). As Sarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College is a private liberal arts college in the United States, and a leader in progressive education since its founding in 1926. Located just 30 minutes north of Midtown Manhattan in southern Westchester County, New York, in the city of Yonkers, this coeducational college offers...
dropped its SAT
SAT
The SAT Reasoning Test is a standardized test for college admissions in the United States. The SAT is owned, published, and developed by the College Board, a nonprofit organization in the United States. It was formerly developed, published, and scored by the Educational Testing Service which still...
test score submission requirement for its undergraduate applicants in 2003
(thus joining the SAT optional movement for undergraduate admission
College admissions
University admission or college admissions is the process through which students enter tertiary education at universities and colleges. Systems vary widely from country to country, and sometimes from institution to institution....
), SLC does not have SAT data to send to U.S. News for its national survey. Of this decision, Myers states, "We are a writing-intensive school, and the information produced by SAT scores added little to our ability to predict how a student would do at our college; it did, however, do much to bias admission in favor of those who could afford expensive coaching sessions. Currently, Sarah Lawrence is one of only a few American colleges that completely disregard SAT scores in the admission process.
As a result of this policy, in the same Washington Post article, Dr. Myers stated that: "I was recently informed by the director of data research at U.S. News, the person at the magazine who has a lot to say about how the rankings are computed, that absent students' SAT scores, the magazine will calculate the college's ranking by assuming an arbitrary average SAT score of one standard deviation (roughly 200 points) below the average score of our peer group. In other words, in the absence of real data, they will make up a number. He made clear to me that he believes that schools that do not use SAT scores in their admission process are admitting less capable students and therefore should lose points on their selectivity index."
Myers further stated that "several faculty members and deans suggested that perhaps it was time to stop playing ranking roulette and opt out of the survey." Myers next argued that at the NEAIR 33rd Annual Conference ( North East Association for Institutional Research) in 2006, a talk given by U.S. News, "indicated that if a school stops sending data, the default assumption will be that it performs one standard deviation below the mean on numerous factors for which U.S. News can't find published data. Again, making up the numbers it can't get. The message is clear. Unless we are willing to be badly misrepresented, we had better send the information the magazine wants."
U.S. News and World Report official response
U.S. News and World Report issued a response to this article on 12 March 2007 which stated: "Sarah Lawrence's decision is unique, and the magazine's handling of it is still under consideration. Some colleges have made SAT or ACT scores optional in the admissions process, but to our knowledge, no other major college has decided to disregard them completely. Our rankings are painstakingly tabulated, using the best data available. U.S. News data researchers regularly participate in briefings and conferences where the most complicated nuances of the process are discussed with the ranked institutions. We regularly adjust to changes in the educational environment, and we plan to address this circumstance in a similar manner."Presidents Letter
The Presidents Letter (dated May 10, 2007), developed by Lloyd Thacker of the Education ConservancyEducation Conservancy
The Education Conservancy is an American educational non-profit organization headed by director Lloyd Thacker. It describes its goal as being "committed to improving college admission processes for students, colleges and high schools."...
, was sent to college and university presidents in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in May 2007, concerning the U.S. News and World Report college rankings. The letter does not ask for a full boycott but rather states that:
- while we believe colleges and universities may want to cooperate in providing data to publications for the purposes of rankings, we believe such data provision should be limited to data which is collected in accord with clear, shared professional standards (not the idiosyncratic standards of any single publication), and to data which is required to be reported to state or federal officials or which the institution believes (in accord with good accountability) should routinely be made available to any member of the public who seeks it.
Instead, it asks presidents not to participate in the "reputational survey" portion of the overall survey (this section accounts for 25% of the total rank and asks college presidents to give their subjective opinion of other colleges). The letter also asks presidents not to use the rankings as a form of publicity:
- Among other reasons, we believe [...] rankings: imply a false precision and authority that is not warranted by the data they use; obscure important differences in educational mission in aligning institutions on a single scale; say nothing or very little about whether students are actually learning at particular colleges or universities; encourage wasteful spending and gamesmanship in institutions' pursuing improved rankings; overlook the importance of a student in making education happen and overweight the importance of a university's prestige in that process; and degrade for students the educational value of the college search process. We ask you to make the following two commitments: 1. Refuse to fill out the U.S. News and World Report reputational survey. 2. Refuse to use the rankings in any promotional efforts on behalf of your college or university, and more generally, refuse to refer to the rankings as an indication of the quality of your college or university."
List of colleges and universities
Twelve college and university presidents originally signed the letter in early May. The letter currently has sixty-one signatures, though others may be added at a later date.Annapolis Group meeting
On 19 June 2007, during the annual meeting of the Annapolis GroupAnnapolis Group
The Annapolis Group is an American organization that describes itself as "a nonprofit alliance of the nation’s leading independent liberal arts colleges." It represents approximately 130 liberal arts colleges in the United States...
(which represents over 100 liberal arts colleges
Liberal arts colleges in the United States
Liberal arts colleges in the United States are certain undergraduate institutions of higher education in the United States. The Encyclopædia Britannica Concise offers a definition of the liberal arts as a "college or university curriculum aimed at imparting general knowledge and developing general...
), members discussed the letter to college presidents. As a result, "a majority of the approximately 80 presidents at the meeting said that they did not intend to participate in the U.S. News reputational rankings in the future." However, the decision to fill out the reputational survey or not will be left up to each individual college as: "the Annapolis Group is not a legislative body and any decision about participating in the US News rankings rests with the individual institutions."
The statement also said that its members "have agreed to participate in the development of an alternative common format that presents information about their colleges for students and their families to use in the college search process." This database will be web based and developed in conjunction with higher education organizations including the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities
National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities
Founded in 1976, the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities is an organization of private US colleges and universities...
and the Council of Independent Colleges
Council of Independent Colleges
The Council of Independent Colleges is an association of nearly 600 independent, liberal arts colleges and universities and more than 70 higher education affiliates and organizations that work together to strengthen college and university leadership, sustain high-quality education, and enhance...
.
The new database was described in TIME
Time
Time is a part of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify rates of change such as the motions of objects....
magazine as "a web-based alternative to the rankings that is being spearheaded by the 900-member National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. NAICU's easy-to-read template, which is expected to be rolled out by hundreds of schools in September, allows students and their families to pull up extensive information organized in an objective format that includes such data as what percentage of students graduate in four years compared to those who graduate in five or six years."
U.S. News and World Report official response and debate
On 22 June 2007, U.S. News and World Report editor Robert Morse issued a response in which he argued, "in terms of the peer assessment survey, we at U.S. News firmly believe the survey has significant value because it allows us to measure the "intangiblesIntangibles
The term intangibles is most commonly used to describe things that are recognized but not easily quantified; a common example are economic intangibles which describes something not easily quantified within a given theory of economics...
" of a college that we can't measure through statistical data
Statistics
Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments....
. Plus, the reputation
Reputation
Reputation of a social entity is an opinion about that entity, typically a result of social evaluation on a set of criteria...
of a school can help get that all-important first job and plays a key part in which grad school someone will be able to get into. The peer survey is by nature subjective
Subjectivity
Subjectivity refers to the subject and his or her perspective, feelings, beliefs, and desires. In philosophy, the term is usually contrasted with objectivity.-Qualia:...
, but the technique of asking industry leaders to rate their competitors is a commonly accepted practice. The results from the peer survey also can act to level the playing field between private
Private university
Private universities are universities not operated by governments, although many receive public subsidies, especially in the form of tax breaks and public student loans and grants. Depending on their location, private universities may be subject to government regulation. Private universities are...
and public colleges
Public university
A public university is a university that is predominantly funded by public means through a national or subnational government, as opposed to private universities. A national university may or may not be considered a public university, depending on regions...
."
In reference to the alternative database discussed by the Annapolis Group
Annapolis Group
The Annapolis Group is an American organization that describes itself as "a nonprofit alliance of the nation’s leading independent liberal arts colleges." It represents approximately 130 liberal arts colleges in the United States...
, Morse also argued, "it's important to point out that the Annapolis Group's stated goal of presenting college data in a common format has been tried before [...] U.S. News has been supplying this exact college information for many years already. And it appears that NAICU will be doing it with significantly less comparability and functionality. U.S. News first collects all these data (using an agreed-upon set of definitions from the Common Data Set). Then we post the data on our website in easily accessible, comparable tables. In other words, the Annapolis Group and the others in the NAICU initiative actually are following the lead of U.S. News."
A debate on this issue was published as a podcast
Podcast
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
in the 25 June 2007 issue of Inside Higher Ed
Inside Higher Ed
Inside Higher Ed is a daily online publication focused on college and university topics, based in Washington, D.C., USA.The publication was founded in 2004 by Kathlene Collins, formerly a business manager for The Chronicle of Higher Education, and two former top editors of The Chronicle, Scott...
. The debate was between Lloyd Thacker, director of the Education Conservancy
Education Conservancy
The Education Conservancy is an American educational non-profit organization headed by director Lloyd Thacker. It describes its goal as being "committed to improving college admission processes for students, colleges and high schools."...
, who is a well known critic of the U.S. News rankings, and U.S. News editor Brian Kelly. The debate was moderated by Inside Higher Ed reporter, Scott Jaschik.
Statement from Annapolis Group chair
Chair of the Annapolis GroupAnnapolis Group
The Annapolis Group is an American organization that describes itself as "a nonprofit alliance of the nation’s leading independent liberal arts colleges." It represents approximately 130 liberal arts colleges in the United States...
, and president of Gettysburg College
Gettysburg College
Gettysburg College is a private four-year liberal arts college founded in 1832, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, United States, adjacent to the famous battlefield. Its athletic teams are nicknamed the Bullets. Gettysburg College has about 2,700 students, with roughly equal numbers of men and women...
, Katherine Haley Will
Katherine Haley Will
Katherine Haley Will served as the 13th President of Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania from 2004 until 2008, when she stepped down for family reasons. She also served as chair of the Annapolis Group...
, discussed this decision further in a 9 July 2007 article for The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
. In this article, Hill states that this decision was not based upon "a lack of concern about providing accurate, comprehensive information to help students and their families make decisions about college." Rather, she argued against the methodology of the U.S. News rankings. In particular, she argues against "the largest single factor in the U.S. News rating formula" which is the reputational survey as, "it is unrealistic to expect academic officials to know enough about hundreds of institutions to fairly evaluate the quality of their programs." Hill then argues that, "by contrast, 1 percent of the U.S. News ratings formula is assigned to student-to-faculty ratios, which many faculty members and students consider the most important factor in educational experience." Hill states that the members of the Annapolis Group will offer the same information in an alternative, free, format which will not rank schools, as, "an educational experience can't be reduced to one number, a school's so-called rank. The simplicity of a rank is understandably more appealing than spending hours poring over college catalogues and visiting campuses, but myriad complex variables can't be reduced to a single number." Instead, Hill asks students and parents to "compare schools on a variety of factors [...] they should visit campuses and go on what feels like a good match rather than relying on filtered or secondhand information. We must encourage students to look inside their hearts and trust their instincts when it comes to choosing a college, not whether parents or friends think a university is cool or prestigious."
College presidents: responses
A number of presidents have issued responses to these events. One of them, Presbyterian CollegePresbyterian College
Presbyterian College is a private liberal arts college in Clinton, South Carolina, USA. Presbyterian College, or PC, is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church USA. PC was founded in 1880 by William Plumer Jacobs, a prominent Presbyterian minister who also founded the nearby Thornwell Home and...
president John Griffith, compared this movement to a form of revolution
Revolution
A revolution is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.Aristotle described two types of political revolution:...
: "I have lived long enough to come to the conclusion that major shifts occur every quarter century or so in the way American culture approaches matters of importance. We often call those shifts revolutions because people revolt against old and outmoded ways of doing things in favor of new approaches, new technologies and new ideas that better meet the needs of the time. We have experienced revolutions in information technology, travel and communication. There is one going on now that is symbolized by the introduction of iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
s this past week; we know what this one is about. But there is another revolution going on related to choosing a college -- and the role that public rankings play in that choice -- that may be less clear."
Economics and endowment
Presidents have also discussed the role of endowmentFinancial endowment
A financial endowment is a transfer of money or property donated to an institution. The total value of an institution's investments is often referred to as the institution's endowment and is typically organized as a public charity, private foundation, or trust....
, correlating a high ranking on the survey with institutional wealth. President of Muhlenberg College
Muhlenberg College
Muhlenberg College is a private liberal arts college located in Allentown, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1848, Muhlenberg is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and is named for Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, the patriarch of the Lutheran Church in America.- History...
, Peyton Helm, argued that "most of the other factors weighted by U.S. News in their rankings (in a secret formula they will not reveal, that is changed every year, and that independent researchers have been unable to replicate) are based, ultimately, on institutional wealth [...] A trustee once asked me what it would take for Muhlenberg to be ranked in the top five by U.S. News. My answer was simple: A check for $800 million placed directly in the endowment would do it -- even if we never changed another thing we were doing." Helms also noted that, "what you won't read in U.S. News is that most of the data they use is public information, readily available on the Web sites of most colleges and universities, as well as on the U.S. Department of Education Web site. There is no single formula for weighting these factors -- they will have different significance for different students and families. So, next year I and many other leaders of our nation's best colleges and universities will be working on a new and better Web-based tool for families engaged in the college search." Millsaps College
Millsaps College
Millsaps College is a private liberal arts college located in Jackson, Mississippi. Founded in 1890, the college is recognized as one of the country's best private colleges dedicated to undergraduate teaching and educating the whole individual. Affiliated with the United Methodist Church, Millsaps...
president, Frances Lucas, further noted that, "she previously had paid little attention to the rankings debate because her own institution was rated highly in U.S. News. But after learning more about the magazine's methodology and discussing the issue with colleagues at this week's meeting, she concluded that the rankings were based too heavily on measurements determined by institutional wealth."
Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)
President Walter Kimbrough of the historically black collegeHistorically Black Colleges and Universities
Historically black colleges and universities are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before 1964 with the intention of serving the black community....
, Philander Smith College
Philander Smith College
Philander Smith College is a private, historically black college that is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. It is located in Little Rock, Arkansas. The student body averages around 850 attendees, with around 30% of that figure attending part time. Although known historically as a school...
, argued that U.S. News, "focuses on institutional resources, student selectivity and graduation rates to select the top institutions. But since many HBCU
Historically Black Colleges and Universities
Historically black colleges and universities are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before 1964 with the intention of serving the black community....
s struggle with these issues, he says the rankings in effect discourage students from going to those schools [...] If there are people looking at the rankings as a measurement of the quality of an institution, they think [HBCUs] do not have any type of qualities [...] [The rankings] do not tell you who the best schools are, just the most privileged.",
Reputational survey
Former president of Sarah Lawrence CollegeSarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College is a private liberal arts college in the United States, and a leader in progressive education since its founding in 1926. Located just 30 minutes north of Midtown Manhattan in southern Westchester County, New York, in the city of Yonkers, this coeducational college offers...
, Michele Tolela Myers, in discussing her decision to no longer submit information to U.S. News, stated, "they will do what they will do, [...] we will do what we will do. And we want to do it in a principled way." Myers also indicated in a press release for the college magazine, Sarah Lawrence, that the college will be involved in developing the new database of colleges discussed in the Annapolis Group
Annapolis Group
The Annapolis Group is an American organization that describes itself as "a nonprofit alliance of the nation’s leading independent liberal arts colleges." It represents approximately 130 liberal arts colleges in the United States...
statement as they "believe in accountability and openness, and that the public has a right to solid and reliable information about the important decisions involved in choosing a college." The press release also indicated that Sarah Lawrence "plans not to participate in the peer reputational survey or data collection for U.S. News and World Report’s rankings" as, according to Myers, "by submitting data and the peer reputation survey we have tacitly been endorsing these rankings [...] all the information we have provided to U.S. News in the past will be available to the public through other channels.”
Other presidents have also commented on the reputational survey. Former president of Scripps College
Scripps College
Scripps College is a progressive liberal arts women's college in Claremont, California, United States. It is a member of the Claremont Colleges. Scripps ranks 3rd for the nation's best women's college, ahead of Barnard College, Mount Holyoke College, and Bryn Mawr College at 23rd on the list for...
, Nancy Y. Bekavac
Nancy Y. Bekavac
Nancy Bekavac was the sixth president of Scripps College and the first woman to hold that position. She began her tenure on July 1, 1990, and concluded it on June 30, 2007...
also stated in a press release on the college website that Scripps will also no longer submit the Reputational Survey to U.S. News as "for years we have known of flaws in the methodology; many of us have spoken with editors at U.S. News in an attempt to improve its approach [...] but nothing can really improve a system that seeks to reduce 3,300 educational programs in American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
higher education
Higher education
Higher, post-secondary, tertiary, or third level education refers to the stage of learning that occurs at universities, academies, colleges, seminaries, and institutes of technology...
to one set of numbers, and then rank them. College presidents, academic deans and deans of admission do not know enough about other institutions to make meaningful comparisons. This gives a false sense of reliability to what is a ranking system without any real validity." Sweet Briar College
Sweet Briar College
Sweet Briar College is a liberal arts women's college in Sweet Briar, Virginia, about north of Lynchburg, Virginia. The school's Latin motto translates as: "She who has earned the rose may bear it."...
president, Elizabeth S. Muhlenfeld stated that, "one of our colleagues likened it to trying to rank composers. It's a great analogy
Analogy
Analogy is a cognitive process of transferring information or meaning from a particular subject to another particular subject , and a linguistic expression corresponding to such a process...
. How can you say that Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
and Brahms
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
are better than Mahler
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
or Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
?" Trinity Washington University
Trinity Washington University
Trinity Washington University, founded in 1897 by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, is a Roman Catholic university located in Washington, D.C. across from Catholic University of America and the Dominican House of Studies...
president Patricia McGuire argued that, "the survey asks me to 'rate the academic quality of undergraduate programs,' assigning each school a single score using a 1-to-5 scale from 'marginal' to 'distinguished.' That I have little real information about these 181 institutions does not seem to matter to the U.S. News editors [...] Some of the actual best colleges in this nation do not fare well in the U.S. News survey because they do not have the wealth
Wealth
Wealth is the abundance of valuable resources or material possessions. The word wealth is derived from the old English wela, which is from an Indo-European word stem...
, big-time sports notoriety or public relations
Publicity
Publicity is the deliberate attempt to manage the public's perception of a subject. The subjects of publicity include people , goods and services, organizations of all kinds, and works of art or entertainment.From a marketing perspective, publicity is one component of promotion which is one...
clout
Power (sociology)
Power is a measurement of an entity's ability to control its environment, including the behavior of other entities. The term authority is often used for power perceived as legitimate by the social structure. Power can be seen as evil or unjust, but the exercise of power is accepted as endemic to...
to influence the peer voting system." Finally, DePauw University
DePauw University
DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, USA, is a private, national liberal arts college with an enrollment of approximately 2,400 students. The school has a Methodist heritage and was originally known as Indiana Asbury University. DePauw is a member of both the Great Lakes Colleges Association...
president, Robert G. Bottoms, argued that, "I, in fact, did not fill out the reputational survey for this past year. I came to the conclusion that I am not in a position to make judgments on other schools, many of which I have little or no familiarity with. The fact that one quarter of a college's ranking is based upon what is, in essence, its popularity, is very disturbing and we choose not to be a part of the process."
Third-party involvement
Catharine Bond HillCatharine Bond Hill
Catharine "Cappy" Bond Hill is the current president of Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY. She began in 2006, after former president Frances D. Fergusson retired. Before coming to Vassar, Hill was provost at Williams College.-Biography:...
, president of Vassar College
Vassar College
Vassar College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York, in the United States. The Vassar campus comprises over and more than 100 buildings, including four National Historic Landmarks, ranging in style from Collegiate Gothic to International,...
, took a different approach to the question of the reputational survey. She argued that, "many of us in higher education dislike popular college rankings such as the annual academic beauty pageant from US News & World Report. But expecting them to go away is naive, and attempting to undermine them is unwise since students and families could perceive that as petulant and paternalistic. Worse, it could seem as if we have something to hide." Rather than not sending in the reputation survey, she argued, it would be of value to focus on, "a third-party non-profit or foundation", sending them "the same data that we already submit to US News and other rating organizations." On this point, she argues, "a one-size ranking does not fit all, because students and families care about different things [...] What if a school doesn't use the SAT in making admissions decisions and therefore doesn't collect or report these data? In a new system, that school couldn't be ranked if a student chose a positive weight for the SATs. Students would know that the school doesn't value that piece of information. They could then run the rankings with other information (maybe class rank and other indicators of academic achievement), excluding the SAT, and see what those rankings look like. Alternatively, they could decide they actually do care about the average SATs of the student body and decide to look at other schools. Fair enough."
Economics and endowment
Others have discussed the correlation between economicsEconomics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
, college choice, and the rankings. David McGrath, emeritus professor of English, College of DuPage
College of DuPage
College of DuPage, or COD, is a two-year community college in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. The college also owns and operates facilities in the Illinois communities of Addison, Bloomingdale, Carol Stream, Naperville, West Chicago, and Westmont...
, discussed his own decision to attend Chicago State University
Chicago State University
Chicago State University is a state university of the U.S. state of Illinois, located in Chicago.-History:Cook County Normal School was founded in 1867, largely through the initiative of John F. Eberhart, the Commissioner of Schools for Cook County...
in the 24 July 2007 Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
article, Ode to a fourth-tier college. Of this decision, he noted that, "I qualified for admission elsewhere, but CSU was close to my part-time job, and it was cheap [...] I never required a student loan since I earned enough as a grocery bagger to pay tuition and fees in 1970 that totaled $300 per year. All told, a pretty good value, even for a fourth-tier school." McGrath considered it a "good value," because, "CSU eventually led to a teaching career, and my working alongside professors from Princeton
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
, Northwestern
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
, and the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
. I earned the same ample salary and benefits as they, and, more important, was privileged to engage in the same kind of fulfilling work." He also referenced the 2000 Krueger-Dale study (which compared groups of students who received the same SAT
SAT
The SAT Reasoning Test is a standardized test for college admissions in the United States. The SAT is owned, published, and developed by the College Board, a nonprofit organization in the United States. It was formerly developed, published, and scored by the Educational Testing Service which still...
scores, attended both high and low-income schools, and found no difference in post-graduation success rates ) and noted that, "too often, it seems, students choose colleges the way they choose jeans or athletic shoes. They would rather bust the family budget than be caught dead in sweats bearing an unrecognizable school logo. But it's their ability, work ethic and dedication that determine the height of their achievement."
Author and journalist, Peter Sacks, narrows the argument by suggesting a direct correlation between the wealth of school and its rank. He suggests that "the ranking amounts to little more than a pseudo-scientific
Pseudoscience
Pseudoscience is a claim, belief, or practice which is presented as scientific, but which does not adhere to a valid scientific method, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, cannot be reliably tested, or otherwise lacks scientific status...
and yet popularly legitimate tool for perpetuating inequality
Economic inequality
Economic inequality comprises all disparities in the distribution of economic assets and income. The term typically refers to inequality among individuals and groups within a society, but can also refer to inequality among countries. The issue of economic inequality is related to the ideas of...
between educational haves and have nots -- the rich families
Wealth
Wealth is the abundance of valuable resources or material possessions. The word wealth is derived from the old English wela, which is from an Indo-European word stem...
from the poor ones
Poverty
Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...
, and the well-endowed schools from the poorly endowed ones
Financial endowment
A financial endowment is a transfer of money or property donated to an institution. The total value of an institution's investments is often referred to as the institution's endowment and is typically organized as a public charity, private foundation, or trust....
. Toss in the most heavily weighted factor in the U.S. News survey, the assessment of deans, college presidents, admissions officials and others regarding their peer institutions (a beauty contest that constitutes a full 25 percent of the U.S. News ranking), and you get the perfect recipe for a self-perpetuating, class-based rankings system driven by brand names, marketing hype, and prestige."
Where Colleges Recruit: Local SES Correlates with SAT/ACT and Ability; Colleges Recruit the Best but Are Constrained by Economic Forces
In the summer of 1996, Marshall University sociology professor Dr. William Westbrook was having a conversation with a recent Master's graduate. The graduate inquired about Marshall's traditional admissions policy, which had a lower SAT/ACT apparent requirement than his undergraduate school, Shepherd University, with a "selective" admissions policy and higher SAT/ACT apparent requirement.The graduate made an incorrect inference from the averages and thought Shepherd was arbitrarily turning new students away below a higher fixed ACT or SAT score.
Dr. Westbrook clarified the situation first by explaining that every university or college is going to meet its enrollment quota with the best students available, and asked where both Marshall University and Shepherd University got their students.
Marshall typically recruited from Cabell, Logan, Wayne, and Putnam Counties, WV, and Lawrence County, OH.
Shepherd typically recruited both from West Virginia, both locally in the Eastern Panhandle and in the interior of and elsewhere in the state, and from the comparatively wealthy Maryland and Virginia suburbs surrounding Washington D.C.
Dr. Westbrook made the point that SAT and ACT scores are an indirect measure of socioeconomic status. County kindergarten to twelfth-grade school boards are funded by property taxes assessed on home values. At nearly the end of grade school, a college-bound student takes the SAT or ACT.
The difference between Shepherd University and Marshall University is that Shepherd recruited more from areas whose home values were higher, whose homeowners paid more in property taxes, whose school systems were better funded, and whose students benefitted as a result, took the SAT or ACT, some of whom applied to Shepherd University and were accepted, and attended.
Colleges and universities, then, have less control over setting their ACT and SAT requirements than the graduate assumed and than most parents might imagine. Parents need to understand that large scale political and economic forces such as the level of Federal employment and commensurate income around Washington, or other regional differences in living standards, have more to do setting ACT and SAT requirements than the decisions of college committees trying to enroll the best students they can under the circumstances over which they have no control.
Gaming and methodology
Assistant to the Dean for the University of North Carolina School of LawUniversity of North Carolina School of Law
The University of North Carolina School of Law is a professional school within the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Established in 1845, Carolina Law is among the oldest law schools in the nation and is the oldest law school in North Carolina. It is consistently ranked in the top-tier...
, Sarah E. Wald, noted, "the rankings purport to give an overall order to colleges and graduate schools to help students make the best decisions about where to attend school. But universities all know how misleading and even destructive these rankings can be. It's common knowledge how the statistics can be 'gamed.' Colleges can solicit applications from students with little chance of acceptance to boost how selective they appear. Schools can adjust when they allow faculty to take leave in order to raise the faculty/student ratio. And admitting more "risky" students on transfer rather than in the initial class results in a higher freshman SAT average."
Professor Marty Kaplan
Marty Kaplan
Marty Kaplan is the Norman Lear Professor of Entertainment, Media and Society at the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism and the founding director of the Norman Lear Center for the study of the impact of entertainment on society...
of the USC Annenberg School for Communication
USC Annenberg School for Communication
The USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism comprises a School ofCommunication and a School of Journalism at the University of Southern California . It is led by Dean Ernest J. Wilson III, Ph.D....
further argued that, "the problem with U.S. News' college rankings isn't that institutions of higher education shouldn't be held accountable for the quality of services they provide [...] The problem is that the fierce competition among colleges to raise their rankings torques the priorities of colleges toward the criteria that U.S. News uses [...] So this week, when an association of 80 liberal arts college presidents, including Barnard, Sarah Lawrence and Kenyon, announced that a majority of them would no longer participate in the U.S. News annual survey, and that they would fashion their own way to collect and report common data, it was bad news for the magazine, but good news for families. It's also good news for American higher education, some of whose institutions may now become less timid about accepting the quirky applicant, less nuts about generating journalistic puff pieces, and more bold about declaring (and living up to) unique educational missions that don't derive from focus groups.
Senior scholar at The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
Founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1905 and chartered in 1906 by an act of the United States Congress, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching is an independent policy and research center, whose primary activities of research and writing have resulted in published reports on every level...
, Alexander C. McCormick, adds to the above discussion by arguing against the way in which the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education
Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education
The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education is a framework for classifying, or grouping, colleges and universities in the United States. The primary purpose of the framework is for educational research and analysis, where it is often important to identify groups of roughly...
is used in the creation of U.S. News rankings. The problem, he argues, with this use is that there is "no basis for inferring national versus regional focus, because it’s not a factor in the classification criteria. So it should come as no surprise that the national and regional lists contain a great many inconsistencies and bizarre placements [...] By continuing to rely on the Carnegie Classification, they avoid the tough job of defining their terms."
Rebuttals and further responses
Some have offered rebuttalCounterargument
In reasoning and argument mapping, a counterargument, also known as a rebuttal, is an objection to an objection. A counterargument can be used to rebut an objection to a premise, a main contention or a lemma...
s to this criticism.
Consumer demand
U.S. News and World Report editor Robert Morse, argued that "a couple of journalists are making the case for the U.S. News rankings, explaining why the actions of a group of college presidents who have signed the letter boycotting the U.S. News peer survey may not be in the best interests of prospective students and their parents." In fact, Morse refers to an article published in a right-wing journal, the National ReviewNational Review
National Review is a biweekly magazine founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr., in 1955 and based in New York City. It describes itself as "America's most widely read and influential magazine and web site for conservative news, commentary, and opinion."Although the print version of the...
, entitled They Protest Too Much, published on 28 June 2007 in which he quotes John J. Miller as stating, "the magazine's editors and writers aren't interfering with higher education so much as responding to a consumer
Consumer
Consumer is a broad label for any individuals or households that use goods generated within the economy. The concept of a consumer occurs in different contexts, so that the usage and significance of the term may vary.-Economics and marketing:...
demand for more information about it. The demand exists because colleges and universities are among the least accountable institutions in American life [...] the U.S. News rankings indisputably measure something—and something is better than nothing, which is why parents of high school students pore over the magazine's tables and charts. This is rational behavior for people on the verge of spending more huge sums of money on the education of a single child. Like wise investors, they want to know if they're getting a good deal." He also refers to the 27 June 2007 Washington Post op-ed, A College Course in Cynicism
Cynicism
Cynicism , in its original form, refers to the beliefs of an ancient school of Greek philosophers known as the Cynics . Their philosophy was that the purpose of life was to live a life of Virtue in agreement with Nature. This meant rejecting all conventional desires for wealth, power, health, and...
, in which he quotes Robert Samuelson as stating, "[w]hat's so shameful about this campaign against the rankings is its anti-intellectualism
Anti-intellectualism
Anti-intellectualism is hostility towards and mistrust of intellect, intellectuals, and intellectual pursuits, usually expressed as the derision of education, philosophy, literature, art, and science, as impractical and contemptible...
. Much information is in some way incomplete or imperfect. The proper response to evidence that you dislike or dispute is to supplement or discredit it with better evidence. The wrong response is to suppress it. And yet, that's the agenda of these college presidents. By not cooperating with the U.S. News survey, they hope to sabotage the rankings. They say they'll provide superior information. But they want to control what parents and students see. This is soft censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
.What their students will learn, if they're paying attention, is a life lesson in cynicism: how eminent authorities cloak their self-interest in high-sounding, deceptive rhetoric."
Response from Dickinson College
The Provost and Dean of Dickinson CollegeDickinson College
Dickinson College is a private, residential liberal arts college in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Originally established as a Grammar School in 1773, Dickinson was chartered September 9, 1783, five days after the signing of the Treaty of Paris, making it the first college to be founded in the newly...
, Neil Weissman, responded to Robert Samuelson's rebuttal, in the 30 June 2007 Letter to the Editor, for the Washington Post, College Rankings Are Lame Science, in which he states, "when Dickinson College chose not to participate in the U.S. News and World Report rankings of colleges, I imagined the decision would evoke some criticism, but never the charge Robert J. Samuelson made of 'anti-intellectualism' [op-ed, June 27]. 'Intellectual
Intellectual
An intellectual is a person who uses intelligence and critical or analytical reasoning in either a professional or a personal capacity.- Terminology and endeavours :"Intellectual" can denote four types of persons:...
' to me means thoughtful
Critical thinking
Critical thinking is the process or method of thinking that questions assumptions. It is a way of deciding whether a claim is true, false, or sometimes true and sometimes false, or partly true and partly false. The origins of critical thinking can be traced in Western thought to the Socratic...
. The problem with the U.S. News rankings is that they are not 'intellectual.' They are, as some higher education experts label them, lame science
Pseudoscience
Pseudoscience is a claim, belief, or practice which is presented as scientific, but which does not adhere to a valid scientific method, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, cannot be reliably tested, or otherwise lacks scientific status...
. Mr. Samuelson also missed the point in suggesting nonparticipating colleges are trying to censor U.S. News. The magazine is of course free to continue its rankings, as are others. We are simply saying that we will not participate in an exercise that, in our view, misleads prospective students more than it helps and drives up college costs by encouraging spending in pursuit of rankings on a fictional prestige ladder invented by U.S. News."
Consumer information
Professor of journalismJournalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
at Elon University
Elon University
Elon University is a private liberal arts university in Elon, North Carolina, United States. Formerly known as Elon College, it became Elon University on June 1, 2001. The campus is a botanical garden and features oak trees, brick sidewalks, fountains, and lakes...
, Michael Skube, argued in the editorial, "The No. 1 reason to rank colleges," against arguments made in the 11 March Washington Post article, "The Cost of Bucking College Rankings" by the President of Sarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College is a private liberal arts college in the United States, and a leader in progressive education since its founding in 1926. Located just 30 minutes north of Midtown Manhattan in southern Westchester County, New York, in the city of Yonkers, this coeducational college offers...
, Michele Tolela Myers. Skube states that, while having some merit, these arguments were "partly beside the point [...] U.S. News survey, for all its imperfections, performs the useful service of comparing apples with academic apples.In some ways, one might even argue that its nuts-and-bolts consumer information is at least as practical as the bar charts and numbers a car buyer might find in Consumer Reports or Car and Driver. What factors go into the rankings? Student retention accounts for 25% at schools U.S. News calls master's level and those that provide primarily the bachelor's degree (called 'comprehensive' schools, oddly enough)." Skube also notes objections made to the reputation survey portion of the U.S. News survey and responds by stating that, "one can see why." However, he argues, "sometimes just the facts will do, and the U.S. News manual offers them in great heaps [...] Sarah Lawrence, for example, does not take into consideration SAT
SAT
The SAT Reasoning Test is a standardized test for college admissions in the United States. The SAT is owned, published, and developed by the College Board, a nonprofit organization in the United States. It was formerly developed, published, and scored by the Educational Testing Service which still...
or ACT
ACT (examination)
The ACT is a standardized test for high school achievement and college admissions in the United States produced by ACT, Inc. It was first administered in November 1959 by Everett Franklin Lindquist as a competitor to the College Board's Scholastic Aptitude Test, now the SAT Reasoning Test...
scores. Don't even send 'em, it tells high school students. That tells me all I need to know about Sarah Lawrence. It tells me that Sarah Lawrence doesn't take aptitude as seriously as I'd like. The university depends far more on high school grades, which, as anyone who has taught at the college level knows, cannot be trusted. If last year's freshman classes at several colleges all had composite high school grade point averages of 3.6 to 3.8, I don't know how the intellectual caliber of one differs from another. But if one college attracted high school students whose SATs averaged 1100 to 1200, and another attracted students with SATs averaging 1300 to 1400, I know the latter is more selective. Sarah Lawrence might not care about such things, but I do."
Response from Sarah Lawrence College
Former president of Sarah Lawrence CollegeSarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College is a private liberal arts college in the United States, and a leader in progressive education since its founding in 1926. Located just 30 minutes north of Midtown Manhattan in southern Westchester County, New York, in the city of Yonkers, this coeducational college offers...
, Michele Tolela Myers, responded to Michael Skube's rebuttal in the 12 July 2007 Letter to the Editor for the Los Angeles Times, "Argument may be a rank disgrace." On the general topic of U.S. News methodology, she states, "what many of us dispute is the validity of a single score computed by using "data points" to which weights are arbitrarily ascribed (why should retention count for 20% instead of 30%; why is peer assessment 25% instead of 10%; and who decides?). How can a single measure be valid when, in some cases, values are made up when they are not provided (the case of the missing SATs at Sarah Lawrence — the point of my Washington Post Op-Ed)? However, that's exactly what U.S. News does each year. Professional statisticians have reported that the methodology used by the magazine is seriously flawed and cannot be trusted." She also responds to Skube's discussion of Sarah Lawrence's decision not to consider SAT or ACT scores by stating, "Skube says he knows 'all he needs to know about Sarah Lawrence' because the college does not use SAT scores in its admission process, and therefore he infers we don't take aptitude seriously. Perhaps he doesn't know the research showing that SAT tests do not measure aptitude and at best provide a guess about academic performance in the first year of college. I do not think Elon University's SAT scores tell all there is to know about Elon. To think so would be falling into the trap of using one single measure as a proxy for the complex nature of any college. Which is precisely why the rankings are flawed."