Black Colleges Joining the Opposition to the U.S. News Ranking System




Walter Kimbrough, president of Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Arkansas, is calling for all black colleges and universities to withhold ranking information from U.S. News & World Report. Kimbrough says that the rankings are inherently unfair to black colleges and universities.
Dr. Kimbrough has sent a letter through the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education to all presidents of historically black educational institutions urging them to join the growing opposition to the U.S. News survey.
Kimbrough says that the U.S. News rankings favor colleges that reject most of their applicants and have large endowments to pay for the best facilities, faculties, and services. But the historic mission of the black colleges, according to Kimbrough, is to reach out to students who otherwise would not have access to higher education. Black colleges want to find ways to accept students, not reject the vast majority of applicants

Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, 6-7-07

quote:

Originally posted by THE DREAMER:
Black Colleges Joining the Opposition to the U.S. News Ranking System




Walter Kimbrough, president of Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Arkansas, is calling for all black colleges and universities to withhold ranking information from U.S. News & World Report. Kimbrough says that the rankings are inherently unfair to black colleges and universities.
Dr. Kimbrough has sent a letter through the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education to all presidents of historically black educational institutions urging them to join the growing opposition to the U.S. News survey.
Kimbrough says that the U.S. News rankings favor colleges that reject most of their applicants and have large endowments to pay for the best facilities, faculties, and services. But the historic mission of the black colleges, according to Kimbrough, is to reach out to students who otherwise would not have access to higher education. Black colleges want to find ways to accept students, not reject the vast majority of applicants

Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, 6-7-07

All this may be accurate; but what is the alternative..(1) not to be listed at all or (2) lobby for a more even handed formula; or (3) sanction an exisiting alternative.

I beleive these ranking services use stratas, i.e., schools are grouped into classes of similar size and geographical location and degree offerrings. This helps to eliminate a portion of the bias. Therefore Philander smith is not grouped with the major universities such as Harvard.

I don't know about any other HBCU's but U.S. News has ranked WSSU as one of the top liberal arts institutions in the country several times in this decade.

Howard's the only Top Tier Black College in the ranking...

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2007-04-09-college-rankings_N.htm

quote:

Originally posted by THE DREAMER:

...

Walter Kimbrough, president of Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Arkansas, is calling for all black colleges and universities to withhold ranking information from U.S. News & World Report.

...

He really should focus on running his school.

Da latest.

This edition is big business and these folks will stay the course.

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/ranki...ef.php?s_cid=et-0817

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The fight against rankings "must be led by the beneficiaries," Leon Botstein, the president of Bard College in upstate New York, wrote in a recent letter to U.S. News and to fellow college presidents, saying he would sign on to the protest if schools like Harvard, Princeton and Williams do so first. "To end a corrupt and misleading game, the winners, not the losers, have to call it quits."

Exactly! In the unlikely event that the "beneficiaries" will eschew the annual rankings, the "fight" will remain a futile one and it will be business as usual.

WSSU Reclaims #1 in U.S. News & World Report Magazine Rankings

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Aug. 17, 2007


Winston-Salem State University has reclaimed its number one ranking among Top Public Southern Comprehensive Colleges ­Bachelor's category in the 2008 America's Best Colleges issue of U.S. News & World Report magazine.
WSSU has been ranked either number one or number two in this category since 2002. The rankings are part of the magazine's 2008 annual ranking of top universities in the nation.
The ranking marks the seventh consecutive showing by WSSU in the publication's Best Colleges rankings in the past eight years.
"We are proud of the ranking we have earned while moving forward with our strategic planning ," said WSSU Chancellor Donald J. Reaves. "Our consistent ranking in this category validates our belief that we are on the right track in what we are trying to accomplish in producing future leaders."
To compile the rankings, the publication examined several criteria, including an institution's academic reputation, retention, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources, graduate rate performance and alumni giving rate.

Interesting info.

HBCUs need to work on improving their graduation rates if they want to be included in these rankings. Until then, they dont have a legitimate argument.

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Originally posted by NSU Alum:
HBCUs need to work on improving their graduation rates if they want to be included in these rankings. Until then, they dont have a legitimate argument.

There is a simple fix for this, but I don't think we want to accept the consequences. All we would have to do is admit only students who share the profile of students most likely to graduate. So goodbye to our alumna, Mrs Smith's, pleading that lazy Johnny could be brilliant in the right supoortive setting. No, no to Sheeka, you can't graduate in 5 years if you have to start and stop because of money.

We can get the graduation numbers up. Easy.