Entries for May 2008

I frequently go to important education conferences around the country and the world to discuss the America's Best Colleges rankings with higher education experts. Next week, I'll be in Seattle for the Association for Institutional Research's 2008 Annual Forum: "Adapting to Meet New Challenges." This is a national meeting of institutional researchers who work at colleges and provide their schools, external agencies, and governments with data to support decision-making efforts. These researchers also fill out many of the U.S. News America's Best Colleges statistical surveys. I will be making a presentation there entitled "U.S.News & World Report's America's Best Colleges—What Will Be New in 2008 and What Changes Were Made Last Year and Why?"

After that, I head to Taipei, Taiwan, to attend the 2008 International Symposium—Rankings in Higher Education on the Global and International Stages sponsored by the Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan. This one-day symposium will discuss recent developments in rankings of universities around the world and the impact of these rankings. The focus is on technical and methodological challenges and on new approaches. At that conference, I am going to give the keynote speech about U.S.News & World Report's America's Best Colleges rankings.

I'll be back in early June and will report on what happened and what I learned.

I wrote an article for the May 26-June 2 issue of U.S. News , which celebrates the magazine's 75th anniversary. I thought it was important for readers to get a historical perspective on the impact that U.S. News has had in the worldwide expansion of academic rankings.

U.S. News has received some interesting suggestions for improving our law school rankings since they came out in March.

One of the more interesting ideas is from a U.S. Appellate Court judge who proposes that we take into account how many of each law school's graduates are placed yearly in federal clerkships. The judge said:

There have been a lot of comments about the International Baccalaureate program on this blog. I thought it would be best to get someone at IB's New York office to set the record straight. One document that office recommends to clarify some of the misconceptions regarding the IB programs is available at http://www.ibo.org (.pdf)).

In addition, Elizabeth Brock, head of research, development, and communications for IB North America, says:

The IB is committed to providing rigorous, international education to students from around the world. In the United States, the IB has received much support from governments and policymakers, including the U.S. Department of Education and local school districts, to increase student achievement and to turn around low-performing schools. The core of our curriculum provides students with critical thinking skills, second-language skills, and an understanding of other cultures in order to prepare them for success in a global economy. We recommend that individuals visit their local IB schools to see the curriculum in action and to speak to students and teachers about the impact of the curriculum on their development and on the school as a whole.