Rankings Methodology to Change

As administrators across higher education await next week’s rankings of national universities by U.S. News & World Report, the organization’s data chief announced changes in its methodology that could dramatically affect the outcome for some schools.

Robert Morse, director of data research, said U.S. News would reduce the weight assigned to high school class standing and give slightly more weight to SAT and ACT scores; give more weight to schools that have a higher-than-expected graduation rate; and reduce the weight assigned to peer assessments, thereby reducing the value of reputation-building efforts.

U.S. News, which ceased publication of its news magazine in 2010 after years of financial troubles, now focuses on online products and its popular guides that rank everything from mutual funds to vacation spots.

The organization’s Best Colleges guide has been problematic for public universities since it was first published in 1983. Private, wealthy schools rank higher on the list because many of the measures are directly tied to financial resources.

Efforts by many institutions to improve their standing have been largely fruitless, and in some cases counterproductive.

Last year the New York Times reported that several colleges had been caught gaming the system “by twisting the meanings of rules, cherry-picking data or just lying.” For example, the Times reported, Iona College in New York acknowledged that its employees had lied for years about test scores, graduation rates, freshman retention, student-faculty ratio, acceptance rates and alumni giving.