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U.S. News & World Report

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U.S.News & World Report is a weekly American newsmagazine. Its editorial staff is based in Washington, D.C., but it is owned by U.S.News & World Report, L.P., which is based in the Daily News building in New York City. Founded in 1933 as United States News, it merged with World Report in 1948. The magazine's founder, David Lawrence (1888–1973), sold it to his employees. In 1984, it was purchased by Mortimer Zuckerman, who is also the owner of the New York Daily News.

U.S.News & World Report
U.S.News & World Report Cover
Executive EditorBrian Kelly[1]
CategoriesNewsmagazine
FrequencyWeekly
Circulation2,028,000 weekly[2]
PublisherKerry F. Dyer
First issue1933, 1948 (merger)
CompanyU.S.News & World Report, L.P.
Country United States
LanguageEnglish
Websitewww.usnews.com
ISSN0041-5537

Its two primary competitors—both of which have greater circulation—are Time and Newsweek. It is generally considered to have a more right-of-center editorial point of view than the two others. It has also marketed itself as being a serious-minded journal more consistently focused on current events and public affairs than its competitors, at times directly criticizing their occasional cover stories on celebrity or entertainment news.

Officially, there is no space between the "U.S." and "News & World Report"; the publication's title, properly spaced, is "U.S.News & World Report". There is, however, a space in the short form "U.S. News".[3]

U.S. News's college rankings

College and university rankings have been compiled since 1983 by U.S. News & World Report [4]. These rankings are based upon data which U.S. News collects from each educational institution either from an annual survey sent to each school or from the school's website. They are also based upon opinion surveys of university faculty and administrators who do not belong to the school. [5] The college rankings were not published in 1984, but were published in all years since.

The precise methodology used by the U.S. News rankings has changed many times, and the data is not fully available to the public, so peer review of the rankings is limited. The U.S. News rankings, unlike some other such lists, creates a strict hierarchy of colleges and universities in their "top tier," rather than ranking only groups or "tiers" of schools; the individual schools' order changes significantly every year the rankings are published. The most important factors in the rankings are:

  • Peer assessment: a survey of the institution's reputation among presidents, provosts, and deans of admission of other institutions
  • Retention: six-year graduation rate and first-year student retention rate
  • Student selectivity: standardized test scores of admitted students, proportion of admitted students in upper percentiles of their high-school class, and proportion of applicants accepted
  • Faculty resources: average class size, faculty salary, faculty degree level, student-faculty ratio, and proportion of full-time faculty
  • Financial resources: per-student spending
  • Graduation rate performance: difference between expected and actual graduation rate
  • Alumni giving rate
File:Usnewslogo.gif

All these factors are combined according to statistical weights determined by U.S. News. The weighting is often changed by U.S. News from year to year, and is not empirically determined. The first four such factors account for the great majority of the U.S. News ranking (80%, according to U.S. News's 2005 methodology), and the "reputational measure" (which surveys high-level administrators at similar institutions about their perceived quality ranking of each college and university) is especially important to the final ranking (accounting by itself for 25% of the ranking according to the 2005 methodology).[6]

Rankings

Year #1 National Liberal Arts College #1 National University
1989 Swarthmore Yale
1990 Swarthmore Yale
1991 Amherst Harvard
1992 Williams Harvard
1993 Williams Harvard
1994 Amherst
1995 Amherst
1996 Amherst Harvard
1997 Swarthmore Yale
1998 Swarthmore
1999 Amherst Harvard, Princeton and Yale
2000 Swarthmore California Institute of Technology
2001 Amherst Princeton
2002 Amherst Princeton
2003 Amherst Princeton
2004 Williams Harvard and Princeton
2005 Williams Harvard
2006 Williams Harvard
2007 Williams Princeton

Criticism of college rankings

Further information: [[:College and University Rankings: Criticism (North America)]]

Various American colleges and universities such as Stanford University,[7] Sarah Lawrence College[8] and Reed College [9], as well as the National Opinion Research Center,[10] and the "Washington Monthly"[11] have criticized U.S. News's college rankings.

Boycott & alternative database

TIME magazine, [12] The Christian Science Monitor, [13] and USA Today, [14], [15] all reported that a letter would be sent to colleges and universities in the United States concerning U.S. News & World Report rankings surveys. In early May 2007, 27 college and university presidents sponsored a letter asking "their colleagues to stop filling out the survey of institutional reputations" for the U.S. News & World Report rankings surveys. [16], [17], [18]

The Annapolis Group, which represents over 100 liberal arts colleges, issued a statement on 19 June, 2007 stating that its members have "have agreed to participate in the development of an alternative common format that presents information about their colleges for students and their families to use in the college search process." This database will be web based and developed in conjunction with higher education organizations including the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities and the Council of Independent Colleges. The statement also noted that "the majority of the Annapolis Group presidents attending the annual meeting in Annapolis, Md., expressed their intent not to participate in the annual U.S. News & World Report ranking exercise. The Annapolis Group is not a legislative body and any decision about participating in the US News rankings rests with the individual institutions." [19]

Chris Nelson, president of St. John's College (Annapolis), and outgoing president of The Annapolis Group noted for Inside Higher Ed: "that presidents are energized about the issue because they realize 'the lack of any evidence that the information collected has anything” to do with educational quality.' "[20] Alan Finder of The New York Times further noted that "the commitment, which some college presidents said was made by a large majority of participants, represents the most significant challenge yet to the rankings, adding colleges like Barnard, Sarah Lawrence and Kenyon to a growing rebellion against the magazine, participants said." [21]

Notes and references

  1. ^ U.S.News & World Report Names Brian Kelly Editor
  2. ^ Average Circulation
  3. ^ About U.S. News
  4. ^ "America's Best Colleges". U.S. News and World Report. 2007. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ "America's Best Colleges". U.S. News and World Report. 2007. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ A review of US News ranking by NORC
  7. ^ Stanford criticism John against US News
  8. ^ Tolela Myers, Michele (11 March 2007). "The Cost of Bucking College Rankings". The Washington Post. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ^ Diver, Colin (November, 2005). "Is There Life After Rankings?". The Atlantic Monthly. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ^ http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2000/norc.html NORC review of US News
  11. ^ Broken ranks: US News
  12. ^ "The College Rankings Revolt". TIME. 21 March 2007. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  13. ^ Arnoldy, Ben (12 April 2007). "College presidents plan 'U.S. News' rankings boycott". Christian Science Monitor. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  14. ^ Marklein, Mary Beth (6 April 2007). "Rankings face backlash from college presidents". USA Today. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. ^ Marklein, Mary Beth (9 April 2007). "Sentiment building against rankings". USA Today. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  16. ^ "Battle Lines on 'U.S. News'". Inside Higher Ed. 07 May 2007. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  17. ^ "Growing Challenge to 'U.S. News'". Inside Higher Ed. 18 May 2007. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  18. ^ "Colleges Should Boycott Bogus Ratings Game". Hartford Courant. 16 May 2007. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  19. ^ "ANNAPOLIS GROUP STATEMENT ON RANKINGS AND RATINGS". Annapolis Group. 19 June 2007. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  20. ^ Jaschik, Scott (20 June 2007). "More Momentum Against 'U.S. News'". Inside Higher Ed. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  21. ^ Finder, Alan (20 June 2007). "Some Colleges to Drop Out of U.S. News Rankings". New York Times. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
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