Tag: College Rankings

Colleges Hate And Love National Rankings

LET’S KILL THE PRESTIGE RACE BEFORE IT KILLS HIGHER ED
Jeff Selingo writes in The Chronicle of Higher Education: Most presidents will say they don’t care about rankings. They just did so again in a forthcoming survey of campus executives, conducted by The Chronicle, in which presidents put improved U.S. News & World Report rankings dead last in a list of measures by which they judge their success. But that message obviously hasn’t filtered down to their PR officers, who bombard the news media with press releases each fall, when the U.S. News rankings are released, or their marketing teams, which stuff this publication and others with advertising right around the time U.S. News sends its reputation survey to college leaders.

Source: Carnegie Foundation

College Rankings Should Emulate National Football League

The report released today by USC scholars, entitled “Lessons from the NFL for Managing College Enrollment,” examines the conflicts and tradeoffs in college enrollment management and presents a case for how the goals and strategies pursued can be recalibrated to address the national priorities or educational access and completion. Specifically, the paper suggests that American higher education would be more inclusive and results driven if colleges and universities formed a league to establish rules of competition and progress in the public interest. The goals of this “Higher Education League” would be broader participation, increased rates of success, and reduced costs. League rules would ensure better and more relevant public information about college characteristics and college choice, clear and consistent recruitment and application guidelines, full disclosure and uniform methods in determination and delivery of student financial assistance, educational quality measured by student learning and student readiness to realize personal and societal goals, and the nurturance of the talent in the K-12 pipeline.

Colleges Need New Strategy To De-Emphasize Rankings

Colleges: Making the Grade?
by Karen Gift & Thomas Gift
Despite frequent complaints that U.S. News has poisoned the college admissions process, schools have done precious little to combat the rankings infatuation. If higher education is serious about reversing the negative consequences-and perverse incentives-that stem from the one-number-fits-all U.S. News craze, it needs to devise a viable alternative. The best solution is to track student performance-from the first hour students walk in the door to years after they earn a diploma-and then make this information readily accessible. This would allow for meaningful comparisons of schools on metrics that matter most to prospective freshman and their families.

Source- TC Record