Education news and school rankings

• The University of Nevada now offers students the opportunity to minor in mariachi

  NPR Education · Oct 18

• How California tax measures on the ballot could affect funding for schools

  EdSource · Oct 17

• State superintendent candidates Shaw, Barrera respond to California student test scores

  EdSource · Oct 16

• Report About FSA’s Future Causes Concern

  Inside Higher Ed · Oct 16

• Marin County school board president faces calls to resign after colleague’s resignation

  EdSource · Oct 16

• LAUSD celebrates progress in student test scores, dashboard markers

  EdSource · Oct 16

• Grand Canyon University Clears Key Hurdle to Open Christian Law School Next Fall

  Inside Higher Ed · Oct 16

• New Analysis Finds NIH Awarded 7,400 Fewer Grants

  Inside Higher Ed · Oct 16

• Democratic Senators Criticize ED for Front-Loading Grants

  Inside Higher Ed · Oct 16

• Experts say higher education is an industry in turmoil. The collateral damage is widespread

  The Hechinger Report · Oct 15

• Sold a story: The remedy is always teaching

  The Hechinger Report · Oct 15

• Sold a story: It’s not just reading

  The Hechinger Report · Oct 15

Headlines from EdSource, Inside Higher Ed, The Hechinger Report and NPR Education, refreshed every hour. Each links to the full story on the outlet's own site.

These outlets report on education full time, name their sources, and correct themselves in public. Together they cover colleges, community colleges and schools, nationally and in California.

• Inside Higher Ed and The Chronicle of Higher Education: daily reporting on colleges and universities, admissions, financial aid, policy and campus life.
• EdSource: nonprofit, nonpartisan coverage of California education from preschool to the UC, CSU and community college systems, including transfer and funding.
• The Hechinger Report: nonprofit, in-depth reporting on inequality and innovation in education.
• Education Week: K-12 schools, teaching and policy.
• NPR Education: national education stories in plain language.
• For federal data and policy at the source: the National Center for Education Statistics and the U.S. Department of Education.

A ranking is a formula. Two publishers can rank the same college differently because they weigh different things. Before a number changes a decision, look at three things:

1. What is being measured. Graduation and retention rates, outcomes such as earnings and debt, class size, spending per student, reputation surveys, and selectivity all appear in some formulas and not others. A ranking heavy on reputation and selectivity rewards schools that were already famous; one heavy on outcomes and social mobility can put a public university above a private one.
2. Which list it is. National universities, liberal arts colleges, regional universities and community colleges are ranked in separate lists. A school that is first in one list is not being compared with the schools in another.
3. How far apart the schools really are. Positions near each other usually differ by fractions of a point. The difference between 20th and 30th is rarely meaningful; the difference between a 50% and a 90% graduation rate is.

For a transfer student the most useful figures are rarely in the headline ranking at all: the transfer admission rate for your intended major, which of your courses will count, and the cost after aid. The data sources below answer those.

• U.S. News Best Colleges: the most quoted list, with separate categories by type of institution and its methodology published each year.
• Niche: grades by category, with heavy use of student reviews alongside data.
• Washington Monthly College Guide: ranks on social mobility, research and service rather than prestige.
• Forbes Top Colleges: weighted toward outcomes such as graduates' earnings and debt.
• Times Higher Education and QS World University Rankings: international lists, dominated by research measures.

Rankings are built from public data you can read yourself. These sources are free, maintained by the government or the systems themselves, and let you compare the schools you are actually choosing between.

• College Scorecard (U.S. Department of Education): cost after aid, graduation rate, typical earnings and debt after leaving, by school and by field of study.
• College Navigator (National Center for Education Statistics): enrollment, admissions, tuition, retention, graduation and campus details for every institution that takes federal aid.
• ASSIST: the official record of which California community college courses transfer to which UC and CSU campuses, major by major. If you plan to transfer, this is the site that matters most.
• University of California Information Center and the CSU Data Center: admissions, transfer and outcomes data straight from the two systems.
• California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office: system-wide data on completion, transfer and success for the state's community colleges.

ABright's course catalogs cover three California schools. Their own sites are the authority on programs, calendars and transfer agreements; the links go to the official pages.

• Santa Monica College: a community college on semesters, widely known for transfers to the UC and CSU systems. Its transfer center lists the agreements and counseling it offers.
• De Anza College: a community college in Cupertino on the quarter system. Its transfer services page covers UC, CSU and private university pathways.
• University of California, Berkeley: a public research university on semesters. Berkeley admissions publishes its transfer requirements and the majors that are open to transfers.

To compare them on data rather than reputation, look each one up in College Scorecard and College Navigator above, and use ASSIST to check how a specific course transfers.

The headlines are the outlets' own, chosen by nothing but their date, and each links to the story where it was published. Everything else here points to publishers and official data; the page does not rank schools itself or repeat a figure that may have changed since it was written. Links are checked at each review. If one is broken or a source should be added, write to the address in the footer.