2013 U.S. News Rankings

[jrspider]

For what it's worth, I see that we dropped from 27th to 28th in the 2013 U.S. News rankings. The fact the administration predicted an 87% graduation rate, when we only graduated 83%, (for an under perform of a - 4) probably did not help.

This post was edited on 2/5 5:33 PM by jrspider

 

[WebSpinner]

either you have it or you do not, missing a particular projection should bear little weight at all, well maybe to academic pinheads who are anything but normal.

 

[SFspidur]

The graduation rate prediction is made by U.S. News, not our administration. U.S. News users incoming test scores, Pell grant data, and some other factors to predict a graduation rate for each school. They're using it to try to determine the "added value" a school brings.

And yes, it's a dumb metric.

 

[urfan1]

Interesting SF, thanks for the explanation. Raises a question in my mind though, and maybe you have a thought on it. I've always beleived the mission of any University should be to get the best young minds they can and make them better. If this metric is a "dumb" one to determine the level of sucess/failure of making students better, is there a better one that could be used?

It's very similar to the debate we have in our schools systems across the country and our attempts to evaluate the quality of our teachers and educational system. My wife is a HS teacher and keeps me up to date with those discussions. I'm not sure there is a valid and fair metric to use for all schools.

 

[spider fan]

Well that graduation statistic beats the one that Dean Smart gave us in the freshman speech to the males in 1964 - words in essence of look to your left and to your right - one of three will not graduate and one of three will marry a Westhampton lady.
I along with some of you both graduated and married a Westhampton lady.

 

[SFspidur]

Educational assessment is extremely difficult, and I certainly don't have any answers on that.

But trying to predict a graduation rate based on student profiles and then using that to assess how good of a job a school is doing seems ludicrous to me. If a school overperforms the prediction, I see two possible reasons for that in general (assuming that predicted number actually means anything):

1. The school has a positive effect on the students to help get them through to graduation...fostering student happiness, being proactive about academic issues through a helpful and supportive faculty, etc. This is what U.S. News wants to capture.

2. The school focuses on doing whatever it takes to get a student to the diploma. Lower standards, grade inflation, etc.

I'm sure U.S. News is trying hard to focus on #1 by including other data that should be indicative of a quality education, but there are multiple ways to get to an "overperforming" graduation rate.

Schools like Harvard and Stanford have long been notorious for grade inflation...once you're in it's nearly impossible to get anything lower than a C. They've been trying to combat this a bit, but I remember maybe ten years ago when it was revealed that something like 90% of Harvard students were graduating with honors. Yes, most of them were very smart to get in in the first place, but Harvard professors should also have higher expectations.

 

[jrspider]

Thanks SF for clearing up my error. It is interesting to note that this indicator is only used to measure National Universities and National Liberal Arts Colleges, i.e. it is not used to measure Regional Universities and Colleges.

 

[WebSpinner]

will not pretend to be any type of educator but seems to me based on the type of student admitted, all are capable, academically, of obtaining a degree and it gets down to whether they wish to do the work. this is not like a public school system where you probably have a number of individuals not capable of doing the work. not sure why that is important and would carry much weight but could make them mad about being wrong.