Warning! Warning!
While some of the information contained in the following pages is
clearly useful, it would be remiss not to mention that few topics in
education are as controversial as rankings in education.
At any rate,
the motto for anyone using these sites and links might be caveat lector,
let the reader beware! It might be helpful for anyone wishing to delve
into the rankings controversy to read some of the documents on the right.
Problems with Rankings?
- Playing With Numbers: How U.S. News Mismeasures Higher Education and What We Can Do About It
An article in The Washington Monthly Online (September 2000). - A Review of the Methodology for the U.S. News & World Report's Rankings of Undergraduate Colleges and Universities This report critically reviews the methodology used by the U.S. News & World Report to rate American colleges and universities and suggests ways in which it can be improved.
- Quantifying Quality: What Can the U.S. News and World Report Rankings Tell us About the Quality of Higher Education? Marguerite Clarke (2002) asks: "How precise is the overall score that U.S. News uses to rank schools and what are the implications for assigning schools to discrete ranks?"
- The Rankings Game a 2000 analysis of the US News & World Report's methodology in developing its annual rankings.
- President's Statement on College Rankings A statement by the President of Amherst College, co-signed by a number of other college presidents, warning of the "false sense that educational success or fit can be ranked in a single numerical list." (7 September, 2007)
- What Makes A College Good? A new survey seeks to get behind the well-publicized—and much criticized—college rankings and measure schools by how good a job they do of actually educating their students (Atlantic Monthly , November 2003).
- The Cost of Bucking College Rankings The President of Sarah Lawrence College contends that if her college refuses to supply data to The U.S. News & World Report: ". . . we will be harmed because many students will assume that Sarah Lawrence is much less selective than it actually is." (11 March, 2007)
- Education by the Numbers: College Rankings Fatally Flawed July, 2003 commentary by Dale Rogers Marshall, President of Wheaton College, Norton, Mass.
- Is There Life After Rankings? A November 2005 article in The Atlantic Monthly by Colin Diver, President of Reed College. Reed College "now shuns the U.S. News ranking system—and has not only survived but thrived."
- Rankings Face Backlash From College Presidents "What if they created a college rankings system and nobody participated? That question is growing increasingly relevant as a burgeoning number of college presidents say they are fed up with U.S. News & World Report's popular annual feature . . . ." (4 September, 2007)
- Thoughts About College Rankings "What frustrates most college officials about the U.S. News rankings is its suspect methodology and oversimplifications. They know that what appears to be so precisely 'counted' doesn’t necessarily reflect what really 'counts' as academic quality . . ."
- The Story of Academic Rankings "Any ranking is controversial, and no ranking is absolutely objective. . . . Whether universities and other stakeholders agree, ranking systems clearly are here to stay. The key issue then becomes how to improve ranking systems and how to use their results properly. Ranking methodologies should always be examined carefully before looking at any ranking lists, and ranking results should be used with caution." (2009)
- CRELL: Critiquing Global University Rankings and their Methodologies A short article critiquing two major methodologies of ranking universities and their academic output. (27 January, 2009)
- Playing the Rankings Game The authors argue that the U.S. News & World Report's rankings overwhelmingly favor private institutions. (25 May, 2007)
Subject Guide |
Brendan RappleContact Info:
Room 409
O'Neill Library
Boston College
Ph: 617 5524482
Send Email
Subjects:
Education, English
Room 409
O'Neill Library
Boston College
Ph: 617 5524482
Send Email
Subjects:
Education, English
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