While the top law schools have withdrawn from actively participating in the U.S. News and World Report Rankings, and a few undergraduate institutions like Columbia University and Colorado College have followed suit, the business of ranking and sorting schools continues apace. The practice is particularly corrosive for elementary, middle and high schools, where standardized test scores–a proxy for income and race–are the overriding factor in the rankings. The tie of these school rankings to real estate web sites and school funding based on property taxes combine to do real damage to efforts to improve public education in America by helping concentrate wealth and poverty.
FairTest Executive Director Harry Feder explains the harm and dangers of these rankings in this blog post.