Americans love rankings; educated consumers want to know what’s the best on the market for autos, electronics, airline services, and hotels among other things. Educated businesspeople take high rankings seriously, loudly shouting independent praises through their advertising.
But college administrators dislike rankings. I understand some of the reasons why; it’s almost impossible to compare dissimilar schools and the formulas and methodologies are considered non-scholarly by academics. College presidents have said that peer assessment means little when their peers base their judgments on the past perceptions of their schools.
This year, according to U.S. News and World Report, a record low 51 percent of college presidents completed their reputational survey in which they rank their peer institutions. Eight years ago, more than two-thirds completed it. This peer assessment represents 25 percent of a school’s overall ranking. I could guess that the rankings would be less valid as more schools refuse to share information, as well as reliable statistics with the magazine.
However, you can’t keep a good journalistic team down. U.S. News and World Report has been collecting and compiling this information for 24 years. Data collection and compilation for these rankings have been refined nine times, partly in response to institutional concerns. They have plenty of incentive; the America’s Best Colleges issue and print guide are hot selling magazines. They would not be hot-sellers if they didn’t try to be ahead of the curve and become more statistically valid.
Like it or not, these rankings are not going away. Not as long as colleges advertise high rankings as if they’re a “good housekeeping seal” of approval. All educational institutions K-12, colleges and universities are operating in an era where parents and policy makers desire greater accountability and more statistical measures. Even if U.S. News quit publishing America’s Best Colleges, another source would step up in its place. College and university presidents should consider themselves fortunate if Congress does not support that source.
One association, The National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU) launched their own Web-based tool called U-CAN, which stands for University and College Accountability Network. U-CAN is a nationwide effort to provide consumer information to parents and students, including financial statistics, about privately supported institutions.
NAICU claims that U-CAN is not a reaction to published rankings; according to public content on their site, U-CAN was created in response to public demand for comparable, concise, relevant, and easily accessible information. But I scrolled down and noticed that NAICU acknowledges that if “consumers, Congress, and the administration decide that the information on U-CAN is self-serving and of little value, the likely alternative is new federal reporting mandates.”
So, NAICU is behaving much like a business association of firms in the same industry; let’s try to regulate ourselves before the government steps in. U-CAN is NAICU’s attempt at self-regulation. As someone who has been in the education site business, I was curious to see how U-CAN worked. I played with U-CAN, much like a parent or student would.
Here’s what I liked about U-CAN:
+ It’s free and there’s no need to register. If I were a student, I do not become part of a junk-mail database to schools that are of no interest to me.
+ Navigation is clear and simple