Dive Brief:
- Two Brookings Institution researchers have created a new system that ranks thousands of colleges — beyond the nation’s most elite — based on how much they contribute to a student’s economic outcomes.
- Inside Higher Ed reports that the system controls for student characteristics so top institutions attracting the most-prepared students don’t get an unfair advantage, and it then ranks based on how financially successful graduates are as compared to how they would be expected to be based on the institution.
- Schools with a focus on high-paying STEM careers like CalTech and MIT naturally rise to the top, but liberal arts colleges including Carleton and Colgate also show large value-added scores, according to the article.
Dive Insight:
U.S. News & World Report has been heavily criticized for its college rating system since its inception. Academics and researchers have never thought it measures the “right” metrics, yet college administrators consistently make institutional decisions geared toward improving rankings to attract better students — many of whom take the rankings into consideration when choosing a school. The Brookings Institution’s new system zeroes in on financial success of college graduates, another questionable metric, but it does provide a starting point for ranking systems focused on outcomes rather than inputs to college campuses.