<p>USNews won't change catagories for 2007, but will for 2008</p>
<p>College Classifications Get an Overhaul (COHE) </p>
<p>Officials hope new Carnegie system will attract the public and discourage rankings </p>
<p>By AUDREY WILLIAMS JUNE </p>
<p>The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching capped a multiple-year effort to overhaul the labels affixed to America's colleges and universities by releasing a new version of its basic classifications this week. </p>
<p>The extensively revised framework features changes that include subcategories for two-year colleges, a first in the classification's history; three subcategories of doctorate-granting institutions, up from two; and the discontinuation of the term "liberal arts" to describe mostly undergraduate colleges. </p>
<p>The restructuring was done because "the higher-education landscape has become increasingly complex and multifaceted," says Lee S. Shulman, president of the Menlo Park, Calif.-based foundation. The previous classifications, Carnegie officials say, did not reflect that. </p>
<p>The foundation's method of classifying colleges has undergone four previous revisions, but none as comprehensive as this one, which has drawn mixed reactions from institutions. Carnegie officials believe the extra categories, which will be easier to analyze with Web-based tools the foundation has created, could generate interest in the classification system outside academe. The system was developed in 1970 to help researchers group similar institutions. </p>
<p>"I think it is possible that it could be used by the general public," Mr. Shulman says. </p>
<p>The new version classifies 4,321 colleges and universities, up from 3,856 in 2000. An additional 60 institutions were not classified in the revision because their degree data were incomplete, or the institution was too new to have produced any graduates, and the classification for one institution is pending, says Alexander C. McCormick, who directs the foundation's classification project. (For the complete list of colleges, see <a href="http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/classifications%5B/url%5D">http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/classifications</a>) </p>
<p>New Names, New Categories </p>
<p>Perhaps the most significant changes in the classifications are in the college categories themselves. Nearly all of the subcategories have new names and have been expanded. In addition, the methodology behind some of the categories has changed. </p>
<p>For instance, universities that award doctoral degrees are once again grouped according to the amount of research activity that takes place on campus, a measurement that was dropped in the 2000 revision of the classifications. However, the two categories previously used "Doctoral Extensive" and "Doctoral Intensive"have been divided into three. The three groups were determined using a complex plotting exercise where each institution's research activity was compared to a common reference point. </p>
<p>"Research Universities (very high research activity)" includes institutions such as Emory, North Carolina State, and the Johns Hopkins Universities, all formerly known as "Doctoral Extensive." Institutions such as San Diego State and Wake Forest University, both known as "Doctoral Intensive," are now "Research Universities (high research activity)." The third group of doctoral universities under the new basic classification is called "Doctoral/Research Universities" and mostly includes institutions that were formerly known as "Doctoral Intensive" or "Master's I." </p>
<p>Master's colleges and universities have been split into three subcategories larger, medium, and smaller that are based on the number of master's degrees awarded. Baccalaureate colleges are divided into "Arts and Sciences," "Diverse Fields," and "Associate's Colleges," and each of those categories contains most of the same institutions as the former "Liberal Arts," "General," and "Associate's Colleges." </p>
<p>Associate's Colleges gained a new prominence in the system because the foundation decided the classification should begin with the category that enrolls the most students and then continue in descending order. Two-year colleges enroll about 40 percent of the nation's college students. The group of two-year public, private, and for-profit institutions is broken up into 14 subcategories that include "Associate's-Public," "Rural-Serving Small," and "Associate's-Suburban-Serving Single Campus." The subcategories of "Specialized Institutions," now known as "Special Focus Institutions," have also been refined. </p>
<p>A 'More Flexible Tool' </p>
<p>The new basic classification follows the November release of five classification schemes that augment the former single-scheme system by also categorizing institutions according to undergraduate and graduate instructional programs, overall-enrollment and undergraduate-student profiles, and size and setting. And work continues on a set of elective classifications, such as community engagement and efforts to improve undergraduate education, in which institutions can volunteer to participate. </p>
<p>All of the new classification schemes help reveal the kind of information about an institution that tends to be of interest to students and parents who need to compare one institution with another. </p>
<p>"I think they have moved toward making this a more flexible tool," says Patrick M. Callan, president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, an independent research group based in San Jose, Calif. "Students and parents could use this for their own purposes." </p>
<p>But ultimately, Carnegie officials want the expanded method of categorizing institutions to make it more difficult for higher education to use the classifications as a ranking system or a measure of quality. Some, however, are doubtful that the trend can be reversed. </p>
<p>"I don't think we're going to be able to put this genie back in the bottle," Mr. Callan says. "It's not Carnegie's fault. Unfortunately, it's part of the academic culture." </p>
<p>When Carnegie released previews of all of its new classifications, officials heard from institutions that said some pieces of the expanded, multi-scheme system did not quite reflect their identity or mission. </p>
<p>The president of Gettysburg College, Katherine H. Will, says she is dismayed that her institution is "grouped with a whole bunch of schools that we have nothing in common with," such as Presbyterian, Eckerd, and Luther Colleges. The college's basic classification is "Baccalaureate-Arts and Sciences," but because 22 percent of its students are management majors, its undergraduate instructional program is described as Arts and Sciences plus professions, rather than just Arts and Sciences. "That is our mission, liberal arts, and to be out of that category ... we're going to take a really hard look at how many management majors we have," Ms. Will says. </p>
<p>Catholic University of America, formerly classified as "Doctoral Extensive," is listed under "Research Universities (high research activity)" in the new system. "We took a look at what they had done during the preview, and we're appropriately classified," said John J. Convey, Catholic's provost. </p>
<p>The hardest part of creating the new basic classification was determining what number of degrees awarded should serve as the cutoff point to separate various categories, Mr. McCormick says. For instance, 50 master's degrees awarded a year distinguishes a master's institution from a baccalaureate one. Some baccalaureate colleges award a number of degrees toward the high end of that cutoff point, while some master's institutions award a number of degrees toward the low end of their category's threshold making both groups "resemble each other more than they resemble the 'typical' schools in their assigned category," Mr. McCormick says. </p>
<p>Mr. McCormick says the foundation realizes that "no classification can be perfectly neutral or objective, nor can it capture the full complexity of our diverse institutions." Updates will not be made annually, he says, but the plan is to revise the classifications before the next five-year mark. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the classification changes will affect one of its most popular users in ways that are still unclear. U.S. News & World Report, which uses the classifications as a starting point for its annual college rankings, based its 2007 edition on the old basic classification system because the new one's release date did not allow the magazine to meet production deadlines, says Robert J. Morse, director of data research. The 2007 edition will be released in August.</p>