How do we rate?
Last week, I passed a large advert for Aberdeen University, proclaiming it to be one of the world’s top 160 universities. It is, by all accounts, an excellent university, but that ad seemed an odd way to express it.
It used to be that just sports teams were ranked and put into league tables. Rangers are number 1 this season because over the last ten months they have had a series of matches with all the other teams in the top division, and came out scoring the most points. Winning is the ultimate purpose of each team, and so the question, ‘Which is the best football team in Scotland right now?’ has an objective answer. Numbers don’t lie.
Except they don’t tell the same truth in every context. Ranking schools, universities, hospitals or even countries is not quite the same as ranking sports teams. The criteria are often undeclared. It is as if some ratings organisation had announced St Mirren the winners of this season’s Scottish premiership, and further investigation discovered the judgement was made not just on winning games, but the design of the kit, the reputation of the club and the number of corners taken. Universities are judged by several different organisations by unstated criteria including reputation and number of times their academics have their works cited. Things that may matter to the university but not to the students.
But let’s say, we could agree on a single clear criteria for schools and universities, would that be of any use either? Competition is the essence of what sport is, and teams are expected to be ruthlessly selective based on current performance. Education is for all, and should be about individual journeys. Let’s say we took exam results as the way of ranking schools and then put schools in competition with each other. Schools would no longer focus on students first and foremost, but on results. They would only admit students they thought would do well in exams, and education would be reduced to what helped you pass an exam (just as football is easily reduced to what helps win a game).
Next week, I will join an accreditation team reviewing the International School of Nice, a process that ISA went through last September. Our report will not be summed up by a number, and the school will not be ranked. We will first ask, ‘what is the school trying to achieve?’ - ‘what guides their decisions?’ At ISA these are found in our guiding statements.
You cannot sum up a community with a number, it is, if anything, the sum of numerous subjective experiences. You should know what it is trying to achieve, and how it is trying to achieve it. At ISA we want ‘a safe and caring learning environment’ and our idea of excellence is that each student is ‘challenged to reach their maximum potential through academic success and personal growth.’ And this is not done for its own sake but so they can become ‘socially responsible, active global citizens.’
Numbers, like grades, have their place but best to keep them there. However ISA ranks in schools worldwide, I hope our focus remains in improving care and learning for ISA students, not in taking part in a competition that shouldn’t exist.
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