Richard Corcoran: U.S. News & World Report protects status quo, not academic performance

Let’s stop pretending U.S. News & World Report’s college rankings measure excellence. They measure conformity.

For decades, the same universities that built bloated bureaucracies and ideological echo chambers have graded each other on a curve — rewarding peers who protect the status quo and punishing any institution brave enough to change. That’s why their rankings have become a safe haven for mediocrity masquerading as prestige.

At New College of Florida , we’ve refused to play along. The state of Florida is committed to maintaining a public liberal arts college that actually lives up to its mission — where students learn how to think, not what to think.

That college is New College.

And yet, the U.S. News formula punishes reform. Twenty percent of every college’s score — the s