Many consider the US News & World Report ranking system to be the most important resource when comparing colleges and universities; however, two economics professors from William & Mary are looking into ways of improving current methods in evaluating higher education institutions.
Prof. Robert Archibald and Prof. David Feldman recently published a paper providing insight into a new method for analyzing graduation rates among United States colleges.
Currently, US News & World Report uses a technique known as regression analysis in college graduation rate predictions, according to Robert J. Morse, US News & World Report director of data research.
Regression analysis places all data on a scatter plot and then draws a line of best fit through the data. All schools that fall below the line are below average, and all that lie above the line are above average.
Offering a new perspective, the technique used by Archibald and Feldman, known as production-frontier analysis, is based on an economic principle often used in determining efficiency, Feldman explained.
The professors have been working on related research programs for years, he said.
"As a part of this [research], we were thinking about the issues of cost," Feldman said. "Naturally, the concept of accountability came up. Much like K-12 schools are under scrutiny under legislation like No Child Left Behind and standardized tests, people began to question accountability of institutions of higher education; however, there are virtually no concrete measures of output in determining such accountability. Our method offers an alternative: efficiency, which is often used in economics to see who does best."
Given certain inputs, or independent variables, the optimal output can be determined, Feldman said. Such inputs include average SAT score for the bottom 25th percentile, spending per full-time student, number of students graduating from the top ten percent of their high schools and the percentage of full-time faculty.
"They all tend to be good predictors in graduation rates," Archibald said.
According to Feldman, this new method helps schools understand who their peers are rather than comparing them to the mean of the data.
"For example, often times, rankings punish schools with low graduation rates," Feldman said. "Our method takes into account the amount of available inputs when examining graduation rates. In turn, a school with a low graduation rate may still be efficient based on a lower availability of resources. Our approach tends to be more discriminating in this respect."
Archibald mentioned the reasoning behind researching this new method was not to create another ranking, but instead to add more insight to the already collected data.
"Despite the fact that our research generates a ranking that people are excited about, it is not really why we did it," he said. "The problem lies within evaluating how well the university is doing. Graduation rates are only a statistical measure of that. It is a very crude measure."
US News is currently using regression analysis to better predict graduation rates, which are then compared to actual graduation rates in determining rankings.
While US News is not currently looking into acquiring the professors' data, Morse said the publication has not completely ruled out implementing the new approach, though he added he was not familiar with Archibald's and Feldman's findings.
"Our method is not necessarily better, but it is more intuitively appealing to compare yourself to the best rather than the average," Archibald said."It is just a different way of comparing."
Both professors added that the University excels under both methods of analysis.
Read More
Winsome Earle-Sears talks higher education in first U.Va. event of the campaign
By Ford McCracken | YesterdayA Jamaican immigrant and a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, Earle-Sears is the first female lieutenant governor of Virginia,
U.Va.'s Earth Day Eco-Fair 2025 spotlights sustainability advocacy
By Leigh Bailey | YesterdayStudents from Contracted Independent Organizations and University Office of Sustainability leadership programs each shared their unique perspectives about sustainability advocacy on Grounds.
Student Council votes to relocate Hereford orchard and basketball hoop
By Lauren Seeliger | YesterdayStudent Council passed a resolution Tuesday to relocate the orchard and basketball hoop of Hereford Residential College due to construction in the surrounding area.
