A Well-Supported Judgment: Defining Criteria

Printed Page 372
 Analyze 
Use the basic features.

In paragraph 3, Gladwell lists the “seven weighted variables” U.S. News uses to represent a school’s quality. Then, in paragraph 6, he states his main reason for criticizing any system for ranking colleges: “There’s no direct way to measure the quality of an institution. . . . So the U.S. News algorithm”—its formula or set of rules—“relies instead on proxies for quality—and the proxies for educational quality turn out to be flimsy at best.”

ANALYZE & WRITE

Write a few paragraphs analyzing and evaluating how Gladwell supports his claim:

Printed Page 373
  1. Reread paragraphs 7 and 8, in which Gladwell focuses on one criterion—“faculty resources”—from the list of variables U.S. News uses to measure a school’s quality. Why does U.S. News focus on faculty resources, and what do the editors of the magazine use to measure this quality?
  2. Now consider Gladwell’s claim that faculty resources are an inappropriate criterion for evaluating student engagement. What reasons and evidence does Gladwell supply? Given your own experience as a student, how convincing is this part of his argument?
  3. What single criterion would you consider most important in evaluating a school’s quality? How would you measure that criterion?

    Question