Stop Looking at Rankings. Use Academe’s Own Measures Instead.

As the higher-education community begins the new academic year, we also prepare for the latestround of college rankings from U.S. News & World Report. We can expect coverage on which colleges have risen and which have fallen, followed by the usual laments from institutions’ presidents about how meaningless these rankings really are. My own perspective as a former university president differs, as I believe the rankings play a useful, though imperfect, role in providing information.