Does higher education in the United States really live up to its reputation? What is the basis for the clout that accompanies names like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and other top-tier universities? In this article from the Washington Monthly, Kevin Carey writes about what really makes a quality college earn its ranking, and what parents and students should be looking for when selecting a place to invest their tuition dollars. What’s at fault in the numerous sets of college rankings is the “absence...[of] the equivalent of a bottom line. There are no widely available measures of how much learning occurs inside the classroom,” writes Carey.
A version of this news article first appeared in the Around the Web blog.
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