Here… • As if I needed any more proof that I’m Minnesotan: I’m still blushing from the superlatives lavished on our Pietism/higher ed book by its endorsers. Thanks, Amos, Jake, John, John, Rhonda, and Shirley! • GW Carlson on Glen Stassen: “Stassen’s calm but passionate presentations suggested that we need to take seriously the Sermon on the … More That Was The Week That Was
Another year, another new college ranking system: Using unique measures of educational quality, affordability, and career outcomes, MONEY’s new value rankings will help you and your child find the right school at the right price. I guess whatever Forbes, Washington Monthly, and the Chronicle of Higher Education can do, Money can do better. (Certainly better than U.S. News.) And, for what it’s … More How Christian Colleges Fare in the New Rankings from Money Magazine
Here… • Little did I realize that adding Jared Burkholder as a regular blogger here would mean more posts on both sects and sex. • Giving a mini-homily on Genesis 35 reminded me that Carl Lundquist once used that text to reflect more deeply on what it means that Bethel is Beth-El, the House of … More That Was The Week That Was
It’s about as unlikely as a question as you’re going to see over an article in The Atlantic: “Is it possible to judge a school’s ability to encourage deeper religious faith?” But that’s what appeared this morning above a piece by freelance writer Ruth Graham, who started by confessing that she sometimes wonders whether my … More The Challenge of Ranking Christian Colleges
Well, my vow not to parse any more college rankings lasted about five weeks. Right up until… wait for it… Now. Last week the New York Times highlighted a website called PayScale.com, which released its annual ranking of just over a thousand American colleges and universities. Here’s the hook: PayScale doesn’t look at reputation (U.S. News) … More Well-Paid (or Meaningful) Work as a Measure of Higher Education
We’re teaching our kids to say “I don’t care for” rather than “I hate” foods that they find distasteful. But I can’t summon the energy to be polite about the sham going by the title of U.S. News Best Colleges. And just because I’ve resolved here not to parse college ranking systems doesn’t mean I … More Reasons to Hate the U.S. News College Rankings
Here… • Pope Francis: first Latin American pope and first non-European pope since the 8th century; but also the first pope named Francis and the first Jesuit pope. (Maybe one more on this subject on Monday…) • Discussion of Pietism continues to spread: in the pages of the denominational magazine of the Brethren in Christ … More That Was The Week That Was
Spending too much time thinking or worrying about college rankings seems like a clear path to insanity, so I’ll make this my last of three posts (plus one re-post) on the subject for this season… In previous posts I’ve joined, well, almost everyone who looks at these things and criticized U.S. News for basing as … More Ranking Christian Colleges (part 2)
Yesterday U.S. News released its annual college rankings, and I summarized an alternative model utilized by the magazine Washington Monthly. While U.S. News continues to rely on factors like reputation, entrance exam scores, and alumni giving (and, as its growing chorus of critics complains, on data supplied by the colleges themselves — data already manipulated … More Ranking Christian Colleges (part 1)
Today is the day that the annual U.S. News rankings of America’s best colleges are published. (Here’s the summary — note that the rankings I’ll discuss below are from last year’s report.) I already reposted my September 2011 take on the U.S. News survey, assuming that my response probably wouldn’t change much from 2011 to 2012 … More Research, Service, and Social Mobility: “A Different Kind of College Ranking”
The Pietist Schoolman 