According to a recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, the Penn State English faculty was ranked the third highest in their "scholarly output," out of thousands of programs nationwide.

The article is about a new index, called The Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index, being used to objectively measure the productivity of the faculties at various schools nationwide. According to the article, almost 7,300 school were included in the study.

The article, "A New Standard for Measuring Doctoring Programs," points out that before this index was available, one of the only others available was from the US News and World Report. Penn State also ranks high in the US News and World Report rankings, according to Robert Caserio, professor and head of the English department at Penn State, but he calls this new index "far more reliable."

"This is an index about faculty productivity at very many institutions' doctoral programs," Caserio said.

The index measures the number of items published, but the department is also concerned with the quality of the works, Caserio said.

"Like all scholars, we publish as well as teach, so this is an indication as our productivity as publishing scholars," Caserio said.

The new index ranks Penn State third, behind Princeton University and the University of Georgia, which are ranked first and second respectively.

The index also measures when other scholars cite works produced by the Penn State faculty. According to Caserio, being cited by others is also an indication that quality works have been produced.

Caserio emphasized that just because the professors being evaluated are in the doctoral program, that does not mean that they only teach graduate students.

These professors also teach undergraduate classes.

"This ranking is just as important to undergraduates here at Penn State as to anyone else," Caserio said.

According to e-mail message from Robert Edwards, director of graduate studies at Penn State, " every rating of departments and programs will be controversial."

Edwards said that the fact that the faculty received such a high ranking is not as important as the fact that they were ranked at all, which "represents the actual level of sustained intellectual work."

"It is a welcome recognition that intensive, vital scholarship takes place in the department," Edwards wrote.