It included the staff-student ratio as a measure of teaching quality.

ECONOMIST: University rankings

Starting in 2009, the Gates Foundation supported a project known as the Measure of Effective Teaching, or MET, which worked with 3, 000 teachers to come up an evaluation and feedback system that helped teachers improve.

FORBES: Bill Gates Says There Is Something Perverse In College Ratings

The Los Angeles Times has embarked on a project to measure the impact of effective teaching.

NPR: 'L.A. Times' Series Examines Teacher Ratings

University rankings miss hard-to-measure factors such as the quality of teaching and the campus atmosphere.

ECONOMIST: Universities in Latin America

Voters also will decide the fate of Prop. 227, a measure aimed at teaching students almost exclusively in English after a one-year transition class.

CNN: Related Sites

Under the leadership of an outstanding Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, we launched a Race to the Top, through which states compete for funding by committing to reform and raising standards, by rewarding good teaching, by supporting the development of better assessments to measure results, and by emphasizing math and science to help prepare children for college and careers.

WHITEHOUSE: Weekly Address: Education for a More Competitive America & Better Future | The White House