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• International Studies: How America’s Mania for College Rankings Went Global

  Wed, 26 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT

  Higher education is fast becoming a global enterprise as students and professors hopscotch from nation to nation. Yet in this new world of mobility and competition, challenges to America’s educational primacy are inevitable—and international rankings are the means by which those challenges are most likely to arrive, writes Ben Wildavsky. A process is already under way to expand international rankings beyond the metrics of reputation and research to include measures of classroom learning. However, this could be both traumatic and useful for the American higher education system.

• When Learning Has a Limit

  Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

  
  Record numbers of students aspire to higher education. But, are far too many young people with inherent intellectual limitations being pushed to advance academically when they are “just not smart enough?” Ben Wildavsky argues that this deterministic vision of education, where IQ scores matter more than teaching, curriculum or effort, makes way for what is essentially an IQ-elite.