Promoting Engagement for All Students: The Imperative to Look Within—2008 Results

EXCLUSIVE FOCUS ON AVERAGE SCORES MISSES THE MARK WHEN COMPARING COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES, SURVEY FINDS

Findings from a national survey shows that the quality of undergraduate education varies far more within colleges and universities than between them. As a result, rankings can be highly misleading predictors of educational quality. Analyses of key “Benchmarks of Effective Educational Practice” reveal that in almost every case, more than 90 percent of the variation in undergraduate education quality occurs within institutions, not between them. A related conclusion is that even institutions with high benchmark scores have an appreciable share of students whose undergraduate experience is average at best. Read more »