The truth of the matter is that we put too much faith in rags like U.S. News and its ranking systems. Students put too much faith. Their parents and friends put too much faith. All schools want to be number one in some respect (even law schools), so they start conforming their practices and reporting to achieve the best results. It is crazy.
U.S. News just gets it wrong when it comes to ranking law schools. Now we learn that in ranking high schools they make serious mistakes. The Associated Press and Yahoo News reports that Standard & Poor, the company they used to collect data, got it so wrong they ranked Montpelier High School as the 5th best public high school in the country when it did not meet the magazines criteria for such an honor. The magazine says it just feels terrible about the whole thing, and they should because whether we want to believe it or not, parents will greatly alter their lives relying on U.S. News' rankings.
The problem for me, however, is not wrong numbers calculated, although that is a problem in law school reporting as well. They problem is the criteria placed on the rankings. The stats get manipulated by the schools (high schools, graduate schools, medical schools and law schools all), and real people rely on a bunch of criteria that does not help them one wit (no matter if it is correct or not).
Takes a lotta stones. They know that they are publishing information that is life altering to many. I call it irresponsible journalism. Of course I call it that even without the mistakes. They have verified my convictions and eliminated all doubt, however, and that kind of makes my day. Remember that you don't have to give them a break. They certainly wouldn't give you one.
Posted by: PerGynt | December 12, 2007 at 01:20 AM