college presidents opt out of US News and World Report rankings

Hello All,

The Education Conservancy sent this letter to college presidents, and has gotten more than 60 affirmative replies:

"Dear Colleague:

We are writing to seek your commitment (and the commitment of your institution) to a new approach to rankings of colleges and universities compiled by U.S. News and World Report.

We believe these rankings are misleading and do not serve well the interests of prospective students in finding a college or university that is well suited to their education beyond high school. Among other reasons, we believe this because such rankings

* imply a false precision and authority that is not warranted by the data they use;
* obscure important differences in educational mission in aligning institutions on a single scale;
* say nothing or very little about whether students are actually learning at particular colleges or universities;
* encourage wasteful spending and gamesmanship in institutions' pursuing improved rankings;
* overlook the importance of a student in making education happen and overweight the importance of a university's prestige in that process; and
* degrade for students the educational value of the college search process."

Check it out:
http://www.educationconservancy.org/presidents_letter.html


Seems pretty significant to me. What do you think? Anybody going through the process of college-hunting right now? Having just helped my daughter through this, I find this action on the part of these college presidents to be very refreshing. I admire their courage.