The editors, primarily Jay Mathews, defend their ratings by citing recent studies by U.S. Department of Education senior researcher Clifford Adelman. In 1999 and 2005, Adelman showed that the best predictor of college graduation was not good high-school grades or test scores, but whether or not a student had an intense academic experience in high school.
The editors, Jay Mathews, defend their ratings using research from Clifford Adelman, a senior researcher at the U.S. Department of Education, who found that the most accurate predictor of college graduation was not high school grades or test scores but rather an intense academic experience in high school.