Page "College and university rankings" Paragraph 75

In 2009, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni ( ACTA ) began grading colleges and universities based on the strength of their general education requirements.

In ACTA's annual What Will They Learn?

report, colleges and universities are assigned a letter grade from " A " to " F " based on how many of seven subjects are required of students.

The seven subjects are composition, mathematics, foreign language, science, economics, literature and American government or history.

The 2011-2012 edition of What Will They Learn?

graded 1, 007 institutions.

In the 2011-2012 edition, 19 schools received an " A " grade for requiring at least six of the subjects the study evaluated.

ACTA's rating system has been endorsed by Mel Elfin, founding editor of U. S. News & World Report ’ s rankings.

New York Times higher education blogger Stanley Fish, while agreeing that universities ought to have a strong core curriculum, disagreed with some of the subjects ACTA includes in the core.