<p>This is why peer assesment should be avoided, by the president of one of the Annapolis Group colleges (Colin Diver of Reed):</p>
<p>“I’m asked to rank some 220 liberal arts schools nationwide into five tiers of quality. Contemplating the latter, I wonder how any human being could possess, in the words of the cover letter, “the broad experience and expertise needed to assess the academic quality” of more than a tiny handful of these institutions. Of course, I could check off “don’t know” next to any institution, but if I did so honestly, I would end up ranking only the few schools with which Reed directly competes or about which I happen to know from personal experience. Most of what I may think I know about the others is based on badly outdated information, fragmentary impressions, or the relative place of a school in the rankings-validated and rankings-influenced pecking order.”</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200511/shunning-college-rankings[/url]”>http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200511/shunning-college-rankings</a></p>