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CarolynLawrence
Administrator
| Joined: | Sun Mar 5th, 2006 |
| Location: | USA |
| Posts: | 3307 |
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Posted: Tue Jul 3rd, 2007 06:46 pm |
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On my blog today, I have posted a link to a podcast of a radio show where both the President of Gettysburg College (and incoming president of the Annapolis Group, a coalition of LACs) and the Editor of U.S. News discuss the pro's and con's of the rankings.
There is also a link to the new college information sheet format that the National Association of Independent Colleges and University (NAICU) and the Annapolis Group is proposing as an alternate to the U.S. News Rankings. The idea is to give students and parents the information they need to make college choices, and it was developed with input from focus groups of parents and students. It's scheduled to debut as an online resource in September. I'll be curious to see what everyone thinks -- check it out.
Rankings Debate
Last edited on Tue Jul 3rd, 2007 06:49 pm by CarolynLawrence
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DesperateDad
Member
| Joined: | Tue Mar 14th, 2006 |
| Location: | California USA |
| Posts: | 844 |
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Posted: Wed Jul 4th, 2007 03:00 pm |
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I note that Gettysburg College still highlights USNews on their website. I also cannot find Gettsyburg's CDS, even tho the Prez says that there is plenty of data out there; yes, Gettysburg has a link to its own Fact Sheet, but, of course, that data is filtered to show them in the best light.....hmmm, methinks The Annapolis Group needs to practice what they preach, first.
Moreover, I think there IS value to the Peer Assessment, particularly for schools like Gettysburg which is probably unknown in most of the country. The PA also gives a boost to public colleges, by highlighting the "value" that they offer in-state residents. I'm also glad that USNews is looking to factor in Pell Grantees, but, of course, that would boost the public even higher, much to the chagrin of the Ancient Eight and other highly selective Unis.
Gettysburg Prez even says that a college "will shape the student over four years and for life." If so, why wouldn't parents prefer to spend $200k at a college with a better-known faculty reputation (i.e., PA), all other things being equal, particularly since the parchment paper will be with that student for 40+ years. This could be particularly true for those on finaid since going away is a VERY big expense to those families.
The real issue is that education outputs are not evaluable. Thus, USNews uses hard data inputs, and the soft PA.
And, of course, our society just LOVES rankings, whether it be the so-called Bowl Championship Series, early Presidential polling, and the like.
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jocelynDAD
Member
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Posted: Wed Jul 4th, 2007 04:02 pm |
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DDad:
I looked at the Gettysburg site and found only that the President cited that the school is ranked high amongst LAC's.
There is mention of an article from a Professor that was published in US News.
The issue as I see it is that anytime objective data is combined with subjective assessment, that is a guarantee of misleading and possibly false conclusions.
Peer Assesssment are 25% of the overall measures and all of it is subjective.
Other measurements, while objective, can easily be manipulated by the schools.
I read and give some consideration to these rankings, but a have a large salt shaker at hand when doing so.
US News acts as if their methodogy is gilt edged and close to perfect. It is neither, yes it panders to the US need for rankings, but that does not make them right or honest.
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DesperateDad
Member
| Joined: | Tue Mar 14th, 2006 |
| Location: | California USA |
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Posted: Wed Jul 4th, 2007 08:11 pm |
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Jdad:
I totally agree with the salt shaker approach and "possibly false conclusions" (but I would not go so far as to say there is a guarantee that they would be wrong, i.e., 100% certainty). But, false conclusions are also possible with the objective data which, as you note, can be manipulated by the colleges. Hence, any data that the A-Group produces may be just as suspect.
I did find hypocrisy in the Prez' repeated contention that there is a LOT of data available, but yet I was unable to find Gettysburg's common data set.
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