What Do We Rank When We Rank Colleges? Who Determines How and Who Benefits?: Student Empowerment and the Development of Alternative College Rankings

This article describes the life-cycle thus far about how a class of undergraduates and their professor have been developing a new college ranking approach based on the college's cultivation of civic intelligence. The approach was educational in that we learned by doing what it might take to actually develop a rubric in general (although specifically for ranking colleges). We also found it to be empowering since it was largely a student inspired and directed project. it also fostered critical thinking and social critique based on a bottom-up approach to evaluating orthodox higher education.