USNews Part-Time Rankings:
A Tempest in a Tea Pot
I am beyond irked at this one, folks. I feel like someone promised me a great present and gave me a shiny new penny. |
Here's what USNews has to say about the "methodology" of the rankings.
How we rank part-time law programs
... This year, U.S. News presents its first-ever rankings of 87 part-time J.D. programs at ABA-accredited law schools. ... The part-time J.D. program rankings are based solely on a fall 2008 peer assessment that asked academics at each law school to choose up to 15 "law schools with outstanding part-time law J.D. programs." Programs are ranked based on the number of part-time J.D. program votes they received, sorted in descending order: Those with a statistically insignificant number of votes are listed as N/A and are unranked.... |
Now that tells us a lot!
-
Was the list printed in alphabetical order?
-
Was it already in USNews full-time order (hint, hint)?
-
Or did we hand the rankers a piece of paper with 15 lines and a number 2 pencil?
-
Did we ask professors at law schools with part-time programs, or at all law schools?
-
How many professors did we ask?
-
How many answered?
-
How many (or few) votes were considered statistically insignificant?
Wow! If I were as vague as this in explaining how I compile my data, USNews wouldn't be quoting me in their books.
You want the actual ranking? Go pay them $15, then. Until they give a level of precision to the word "methodology" that the word itself implies,I'm not dignifying the gimmick -- for that's the best it deserves to be called -- further.