Inside Rankings: Limitations and Possibilities. NERCHE Working Paper: 2012 Series, Issue 1

Autor/inn/en	O'Meara, KerryAnn; Meekins, Matthew
Institution	University of Massachusetts, Boston. New England Resource Center for Higher Education (NERCHE)
Titel	Inside Rankings: Limitations and Possibilities. NERCHE Working Paper: 2012 Series, Issue 1
Quelle	(2012), (23 Seiten) PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Monographie
Schlagwörter	Colleges; Problems; Higher Education; Educational Objectives; Achievement Rating; Institutional Evaluation + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? College; Hochschule; Fachhochschule; Problemsituation; Hochschulbildung; Hochschulsystem; Hochschulwesen; Educational objective; Bildungsziel; Erziehungsziel; Achievement; Rating; Leistung; Beurteilung; Leistungsbeurteilung
Abstract	Americans love ranking systems. Whether we are ranking the hottest celebrities, the top ten singles, the top chef, or the next design star, ranking seems to be built into the American psyche as a symptom of our competitive, aspirational nature, and our desire to quickly understand the value of things. This desire has fueled a veritable ranking industry with respect to institutions of higher education. There is great diversity in what ranking systems purport to rank. Beyond the well-known U.S. News and World Report (USNWR) "Best Colleges" lists are those that rank specific institutional types, such as flagship, land-grant, and international universities. Others aim to provide information to consumers about how a particular college or university rates on anything from "value," broadly defined, to institutional commitment to sustainability, gender balance within the student population, and salaries of recent graduates, to the perceived quality of its athletic facilities, the popularity of its website, or its status as a party school. The ranking industry has become very influential in higher education, raising questions about the relationship between dominant ranking systems and the purposes and goals of institutions of higher education. Whose interests do the most widely-used rankings systems serve, and why? What purposes and ideologies are they not representing? Questions such as these led the first author of this paper to develop a graduate course on ranking systems in higher education. The second author was first a student, then a speaker in the course. The purpose of this article is to present the authors' critique of the main weaknesses and contributions of dominant ranking systems, to consider some of the positive and/or neutral roles that they are serving, and to offer three examples of purposes and goals of higher education the authors believe are not being fulfilled. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	New England Resource Center for Higher Education. University of Massachusetts Boston, 100 Morrissey Boulevard, Boston, MA 02125-3393. Tel: 617-287-7740; Fax: 617-287-7747; Web site: https:scholarworks.umb.edu/nerche
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01