Ben Miller, a senior policy analyst at New America Foundation, explains that a discrepancy in methodology by other university ranking systems requires a new approach toward evaluating higher ed.
“The best colleges seem to be the best at everything except socioeconomics and racial diversity. That’s because when you’re sitting on billions of dollars in an endowment and taking one out of every 10 students, it’s pretty easy to achieve things like a low student-to-faculty ratio and low class size.”
But is debt and cost really as important as completion rates? Miller says that their university rankings expand on existing metrics such as completion rates and includes other data like retention rates to reward schools that retain first-year students on to the next year. “When we did this, the list actually looked very different. The value choices we made started to change who showed up, and the second list we compiled was dominated with for-profit colleges.”
Another metric to reconsider is in the role of demographics.
Miller says it is clear ethnicity and socioeconomics influence mainstream college ranking results, although many institutions with minority students achieve perfectly satisfactory outcomes. Unlike other university rankings, this new ranking system rewards schools not simply for enrolling minority students, but it ranks those that include net price charge to the lowest income students, as well as the graduation rate for minority students.
Miller says the rationale behind this logic is that universities should not just accept the underprivileged, but to provide them with the necessary tools to succeed once admitted to college. “Higher education access has to be more than just providing students with a spot. It has to be about serving them well.” Private non-profits tended to shine in this category.
Jamie Merisotis, the CEO and President of Lumina Foundation, which aims to help Americans achieve high quality, post-secondary education and training, said there should be a fundamental rethinking about the future of colleges. “If the country is going to move the needle in increasing attainment, emphasis needs to be placed on the right outcomes. Outcomes that reflect student progress that ensure that higher education is affordable and is producing high quality degrees.”
What do you think about this new ranking system? Please share your views in the comments section below and by connecting with us on Twitter @ecampusnews.
Michael Sharnoff is Associate Online Editor at eCampus News. Follow him @Michael_eSM.
- The best online programs in 2015 - January 8, 2015
- Number 2: Top 10 Big Data graduate programs - December 30, 2014
- How to invest in the right ed tech - December 25, 2014