Illustration: Jon Krause
S0鈥hat鈥檚 the point of those higher ed rankings, anyway?
Does ranking high in the annual 鈥渂est colleges and universities鈥� listings really reflect the quality of teaching and learning in a school?
In a word, no, says TC鈥檚 , Assistant Professor of Higher Education. 鈥淚t might signal to employers that students are smart coming in, but it has little to do with what鈥檚 actually happening inside that university.鈥�
Campbell spearheads a unique research program that quantifies post-secondary educational quality down to the classroom level and compares it within and across institutions. In a multi-institutional study in 2013 and 2014, she, her TC students and others watched hundreds of class sessions and analyzed syllabi at nine diverse institutions, including public and private, more and less selective, and research-based and liberal arts.
I鈥檓 interested in starting a conversation with the broader public about what鈥檚 important in a college education. What environments foster good teaching and learning?鈥�
鈥�&苍产蝉辫;Corbin Campbell, Assistant Professor of Higher Education
One preliminary finding, albeit from a small sample size: classes taught in so-called 鈥渂road access鈥� institutions scored higher than those in more selective, prestigious schools on teaching quality indicators such as leveraging students鈥� prior knowledge and connecting it to a course鈥檚 core ideas.
There鈥檚 precedent for Campbell鈥檚 detailed observations inside schools.
鈥淚n K-12 education research, we have tens of thousands of videotaped observations, used in countless studies,鈥� she says. 鈥淏ut in higher education, there has been little quantitative observational research.鈥� Ethnographies exist, she says, but do not lend themselves to structured comparison.
Campbell, an Academic Fellow for the and Policy Direct program, reports strong interest in her project 鈥� including from faculty her team has observed. 鈥淚 think they feel they put a lot of effort into teaching practice that sometimes gets ignored.鈥� Ultimately, though, she鈥檚 targeting a larger audience.
鈥淚鈥檓 interested in starting a conversation with the broader public about what鈥檚 important in a college education. What environments foster good teaching and learning? How much do you know about that broad-access institution next door that 鈥� guess what 鈥� has great teaching and learning practices? Don鈥檛 discount that graduate from there!鈥�