Entries for April 2008

Let's set the record straight about Coastal Carolina University and its placement in the U.S. News America's Best Colleges rankings. In an editorial titled "Justice for Coastal" that was published on April 27, the writer made some incorrect statements:

1. The editorial says that the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching "supplies the qualitative data on which U.S. News relies to generate its annual ratings guide for U.S. colleges and universities." This is not the case. U.S. News does use Carnegie's "Basic Classification" standards to determine in which U.S. News category a school is placed for the best-colleges rankings. But all of the actual data used to calculate a school's rank are gathered independently by U.S. News, not supplied to us by the Carnegie Foundation.

A group of school superintendents recently sent a letter to the editor of Newsweek (U.S. News and Time magazine were copied) asking the magazine to omit high schools in their districts from its upcoming rankings. They have also said they will no longer submit the Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate test data that make it possible for Newsweek to rank their districts' schools.

According to their letter, they:

Each year after we publish our America's Best Colleges rankings, we study ways to improve them so they continue to reflect current developments in higher education and use the best data we can collect. As a result of the most recent evaluation process, U.S.News & World Report for the first time ever is asking high school counselors for their views on undergraduate programs at American colleges and universities.

Since we started doing the America's Best Colleges rankings over 20 years ago, high school counselors have frequently asked why we don't seek more input from them. "We know a lot about colleges, and we play a key gatekeeper role in the college admission process," they say. We agree. We know that high school college counselors play a pivotal role in assisting students and their parents as they make choices about pursuing higher education. We hope that the counselors we survey will respond so their views can be heard.

Our recently published America's Best Graduate Schools rankings have triggered a growing debate about how to rate grad schools and what factors should be used.

The new law school rankings have been a primary focus. Check out the blogs Above the Law and TaxProf for some of the best coverage and reactions to the law school rankings. In addition, in Prof. Brian Leiter's Law School Reports, there is an open letter about how to improve the U.S. News law school rankings. I will comment on Leiter's open letter in the near future.