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U.S. News Discusses Best High Schools Rankings at Ed Department Meeting
Tweet Share on Facebook July 12, 2012 CommentSoon after the U.S. News 2012 Best High Schools rankings were published in May 2012, it became clear that there were errors in the 2009-2010 enrollment data used in the calculations. The data came from the U.S. Department of Education's Common Core of Data (CCD) and the errors affected a small number of the ranked high schools.
[See the detailed methodology used in Best High Schools rankings.]
One reason why U.S. News ranks the Best High Schools and publishes data on nearly every U.S. public high school is to help consumers by standardizing the reporting and transparency of high school-level data from every state. As part of this goal, I recently attended the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics' (NCES) 25th Annual STATS-DC 2012 Data Conference and was on a panel titled "High School Rankings by the Media: What We Learned About the Importance of Data Quality in the Common Core of Data and Opportunities for Improvements."
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Recent Law School News Focuses On Rankings
Tweet Share on Facebook July 5, 2012 CommentThere have a been a few recent, noteworthy pieces that relate to the U.S. News Best Law Schools rankings:
• "Despite an Uncertain Employment Landscape, Law School Applicants Still Consider School Rankings Far More Important than Job Placement Rates When Deciding Where to Apply": According to Kaplan's report based on a June 2012 survey of Kaplan Test Prep's LSAT students:
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Looking Ahead to STEM Solutions 2012
Tweet Share on Facebook June 21, 2012 CommentLater this month, I will be in Dallas to attend U.S. News STEM Solutions 2012, a new event sponsored by U.S. News in partnership with more than 40 corporations and key organizations representing industry and education. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and math.
This very important event will focus on the critical shortage of STEM skills in the American workforce and how to stimulate students toward careers in these same disciplines. It's expected that hundreds will attend, including many experts from all levels of government, industry, and associations, as well as educators, top policy makers, and members of the media.
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U.S. News Presents at Association for Institutional Research 2012 Forum
Tweet Share on Facebook June 7, 2012 CommentU.S. News believes that institutional researchers at colleges and universities play an important role in higher education. We have worked closely with them for many years, and their input has led to improvements and changes in our Best Colleges rankings and the data that we collect for our website.
Institutional researchers study higher education issues and trends, do peer school comparisons, conduct assessments, survey students, and complete external surveys, including the ones used for the U.S. News Best Colleges rankings.
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Adjusting the Best High Schools Rankings for Government Data Errors
Tweet Share on Facebook May 30, 2012 CommentAfter the online release of the U.S. News 2012 Best High Schools rankings on May 8, it became evident that some of the data that U.S. News obtained from the federal government was incorrect for a small number of public high schools. The data came from the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), which collects data from states for all public elementary and secondary schools annually and publishes that data on the Common Core of Data (CCD) website.
The federal government has notified U.S. News of errors in some of the CCD data that U.S. News used. The high school data that was incorrect was based on data collected in the 2009-2010 school year, and the errors were in enrollment, ethnicity, faculty counts, and participation in free and reduced-price lunch programs.
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Get Answers to Questions About the Best High Schools Rankings
Tweet Share on Facebook May 17, 2012 Comment (2)Since the release of the new U.S. News 2012 Best High Schools rankings earlier this month, one of the most frequently asked questions is how to find out more information about the data and rankings and how to contact U.S. News in order to get detailed questions answered.
If you have a question about the Best High Schools, there is a strong likelihood that it's covered in our Frequently Asked Questions, which tackle 18 of the most regularly asked questions about the rankings.
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Sources Used in the Best High Schools Rankings
Tweet Share on Facebook May 8, 2012 Comment (9)In producing the new 2012 U.S. News Best High Schools rankings, we used information collected by the U.S. Department of Education, among other sources. U.S. News has learned that Nevada's Green Valley High School is claiming that its data published on usnews.com is inaccurate. We're looking into the matter.
Broadly speaking, U.S. News obtained the school-level data on enrollment, ethnicity, teachers, and economically disadvantaged students for nearly 22,000 public high schools analyzed in the 2012 rankings from the U.S. Department of Education. That data is visible to anyone via the U.S. Department of Education's Common Core of Data website.
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Update to Iona College's 2012 Best Colleges Ranking
Tweet Share on Facebook April 27, 2012 CommentIona College in New York advised U.S. News in fall 2011 that certain of its data points had been falsified, resulting in the submission of inflated information that was used in the 2012 edition of the Best Colleges rankings, and thereby making its rank in the Regional Universities—North category higher than it otherwise would have been.
[See our previous post on Iona's inflation of rankings data.]
Because of the discrepancies, Iona College has changed from being a ranked school to an "Unranked" school in the Best Colleges section of usnews.com. Unranked means that U.S. News did not calculate a numerical ranking for this school.
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New Best High Schools Rankings Launch May 8
Tweet Share on Facebook April 27, 2012 Comment (1)Please note we have moved the launch date for the 2012 U.S. News Best High Schools to Tuesday, May 8.
Due to the extensive amount of new data we will be publishing online for nearly 22,000 public schools, we are extending our internal review and testing.
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Correcting Claremont McKenna's 2010 Admissions Statistics
Tweet Share on Facebook April 25, 2012 CommentClaremont McKenna College has made public a report from the law firm O'Melveny & Myers LLP that detailed the data that the school is now reporting as correct—specifically, SAT, ACT, high school class standing, and application count data—and the extent of the data falsification that started in 2004.
[Read our earlier post about the final report from O'Melveny & Myers on the data falsification.]
Regarding Claremont McKenna's current rank, No. 9, as published in the 2012 Best Colleges rankings, U.S.News & World Report Editor and Chief Content Officer Brian Kelly said, "Our calculation shows that based on the data now being reported by Claremont McKenna as correct, Claremont McKenna College's ranking will not change."
