<p>More Colleges Plan to Snub Annual U.S. News Ranking (Update2) </p>
<p>By Matthew Keenan</p>
<p>June 19 (Bloomberg) – A group of U.S. liberal arts colleges plans to stop participating in U.S. News & World Report’s higher- education rankings, saying the magazine’s yearly survey misleads students. </p>
<p>A majority of representatives at a meeting today agreed not to cooperate with the annual U.S. News assessment, said Christopher Nelson, chairman of the association, called the Annapolis Group because it was founded there in 1993. Members will work with other organizations to develop alternative ways to evaluate colleges. </p>
<p>The decision by the group, which includes colleges such as Williams, Amherst and Swarthmore, compounds the resistance to the system used by U.S. News, which compiled its first rankings in 1983 and began publishing them annually in 1987. The Washington- based magazine is facing criticism for using subjective criteria to evaluate a school’s value, particularly a survey asking administrators to pass judgment on other schools’ reputations. </p>
<p><code>The idea that you could reduce a college to a number is antithetical to everything we know about ourselves, about our students and about what learning is all about,‘’ said Nelson, 59, president of St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland, where the group met.</code>It’s possible that we’ve reached a tipping point where people realize the pernicious effects of these kinds of rankings.‘’ </p>
<p>The 115-member association didn’t take a formal vote at its annual meeting, which drew 80 presidents. Each member school will make its own choice about whether, or to what extent, it will cooperate with the magazine, Nelson said. </p>
<p>Top-Ranked Colleges </p>
<p>Liberal arts colleges are mainly smaller schools that emphasize general intellectual development over professional training. Williams, in Williamstown, Massachusetts, was ranked top by U.S. News for the second straight year in August, followed by Amherst, also in Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania’s Swarthmore. </p>
<p>Brian Kelly, editor of U.S. News, said the magazine continually seeks ways to improve its rankings, published each year as ``America’s Best Colleges.‘’
We welcome input and involvement of college and university administration officials and other stakeholders in refining and improving `America's Best Colleges,''' Kelly said in a statement.</code>The ultimate goal, of course, is to continue providing consumers with factual, accurate, easy-to-navigate information that will help them with a hugely important life choice.'' </p>
<p>The rankings measure about 1,400 schools on criteria such as academic excellence, average freshman retention rate, graduation rates and faculty resources. The magazine also surveys about 4,000 administrators, including presidents, provosts and admissions directors. The peer reports account for 25 percent of a school’s score. </p>
<p>Previous Campaign </p>
<p>In May, a group of 12 college presidents, including Nelson of St. John’s, sent a letter urging hundreds of their counterparts not to fill out the survey that measures schools’ reputations and to discontinue the use of U.S. News results in their promotional material. Twenty-four additional schools have signed the letter since then. </p>
<p>The U.S. News rankings have helped distort the college admissions process, said Lloyd Thacker, founder of the Education Conservancy in Portland, Oregon, and co-author of the May letter. The criteria emphasize the financial prowess of elite schools over the educational needs of students, he said. </p>
<p><code>College presidents are realizing that there’s an opportunity to cooperate’’ to create an alternative, said Thacker, who met with the Annapolis Group yesterday.</code>It’s a significant move forward.‘’ </p>
<p>Alternative Assessment </p>
<p>The Annapolis Group formed a committee to work with other organizations, including the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities and the Council of Independent Colleges, to develop a standardized report with information for prospective students, Nelson said. </p>
<p>The group envisions a Web site that would ``provide easily accessible, comprehensive and quantifiable data,‘’ he said. The information could cover the number of applications a school receives, enrollment, class sizes, majors offered, sports programs and demographic information, among other data, he said. The site wouldn’t include a score or grade for each institution. </p>
<p>U.S. News said common data already exists, developed by the College Board, publishers and university associations, to improve the quality and accuracy of information from schools. The initiative was begun 12 years ago, the magazine said. </p>
<p>To contact the reporter on this story: Matthew Keenan in Boston at <a href="mailto:mkeenan6@bloomberg.net">mkeenan6@bloomberg.net</a> .</p>