Introduction
Beginning a career as an educator starts with choosing an education program that will allow you to attain your teaching degree and acquire the necessary skills to thrive in you career. But with so many schools to select from, how do you decide which education program is best for you? A good place to begin your search is to look at college rankings. Although arguably flawed, the ranking system can provide aspiring teachers with an important tool that can help them evaluate which school of education best fits their needs and desired career path. However, as with any tool, one needs to understand its value and limitations.
School Rankings
One of the most popular college ranking systems in the world was developed by U.S. News & World Report in the late the 1980s. The first "America's Best Colleges" report was published in 1983. The rankings have been compiled and published annually since 1985 and are the most widely quoted of their kind in the U.S. These rankings are based upon data which U.S. News & World Report collects from each educational institution, either from an annual survey sent to each school, or from the school's website. They are also based upon opinion surveys of university faculties and administrators who do not belong to the schools. Schools of education are rated and ranked based on seven criteria, which include peer assessment, student retention, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources, graduation performance, and alumni giving.
The popularity of U.S. News & World Report's college rankings is reflected in its 2007 release, which boasted the fact that within 3 days of the rankings release, U.S. News website received 10 million page views compared to 500,000 average views in a typical month. Additionally, nearly 80 percent of visitors accessed the ranking section of the website directly rather than navigating via the magazine's home page.
Criticism of college rankings
Although the college ranking system is popular and can provide potential applicants guidelines for evaluating schools, the system is not without its flaws. During the 1990s, three educational institutions in the United States were involved in a movement to boycott the U.S.News & World Report college rankings survey. The first was Reed College which stopped submitting the survey in 1995. The survey was also criticized by Alma College, Stanford University, and St. John's College during the late 1990s.
SAT scores play a major role in The U.S.News & World Report college rankings even though U.S. News is not empowered with the ability to formally verify or recalculate the scores that are represented to them by schools. Since the mid-1990s there have been many instances documented by the popular press wherein schools lied about their SAT scores in order to obtain a higher ranking. In the summer of 2007, during the annual meeting of the Annapolis Group, members discussed the letter to college presidents asking them not to participate in the "reputation survey" section of the U.S. News & World Report survey (this section comprises 25% of the ranking).
As a result, "a majority of the approximately 80 presidents at the meeting said that they did not intend to participate in the U.S. News reputation rankings in the future. " The statement also said that its members had agreed "to participate in the development of an alternative common format that presents information about their colleges for students and their families to use in the college search process". This database would be web based and developed in conjunction with higher education organizations including the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities and the Council of Independent Colleges.
Later that year, U.S. News & World Report editor Robert Morse issued a response in which he argued, "in terms of the peer assessment survey, we at U.S. News firmly believe the survey has significant value because it allows us to measure the 'intangibles' of a college that we can't measure through statistical data. Plus, the reputation of a school can help get that all-important first job and plays a key part in which grad school someone will be able to get into. The peer survey is by nature subjective, but the technique of asking industry leaders to rate their competitors is a commonly accepted practice. The results from the peer survey also can act to level the playing field between private and public colleges. "
Some higher education experts, such as Kevin Carey of Education Sector, have argued that instead of focusing on the fundamental issues of how well colleges and universities educate their students and how well they prepare them to be successful after college, the magazine's rankings are almost entirely a function of three factors: fame, wealth, and exclusivity. " He suggests that there are more important characteristics parents and students should research to select colleges, such as how well students are learning and how likely students are to earn a degree. It is also important to note that an empowering education experience can also be found outside of a top education school.
US News and World Report College Rankings
2012 cover