<p>and I have no idea how they managed to rank them the way they did. Their methodology must stress things I consider unimportant and discount things that are important.</p>
<p>Here is the methodology: [Best</a> High Schools Methodology - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/high-schools/articles/2012/05/07/best-high-schools-methodology]Best”>http://www.usnews.com/education/high-schools/articles/2012/05/07/best-high-schools-methodology)</p>
<p>From the methodology:</p>
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<p>Our HS has both APs and an IB program. The IB program is newer and smaller than the AP program. That means that if the most able students take IB exams instead of AP exams, which may be the case, that the index may be artificially lowered. It seems to me that it would be more accurate to consider both tests rather than to pick one. </p>
<p>Leaving aside, of course the entire issue of whether AP/IB participation rate is really a good way to measure what they claim to be measuring…</p>
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<p>$100 to take an AP test at my old high school. Many didn’t take the test even after successfully completing the course. Guess we were docked for that. Seems to have a definite middle/upper class bias (at least by that measurement).</p>
<p>My sons’ high school was #2 in our state. The high school requires all who take an AP class to take the exam, and the high school pays for it. Any student who does not take the AP exam does not get the AP gpa bump.</p>
<p>The #1 school pays kids to take the AP tests. It is a good school but I think that the AP participation rate is artificially high. IMO ranking should be based on # of tests passed.</p>
<p>The clown Morse is up to his usual level of quality in these rankings:</p>
<p>[U.S</a>. News ‘looking into’ reports of erroneous data in Best High Schools rankings - Wednesday, May 9, 2012 | 2 a.m. - Las Vegas Sun](<a href=“http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/may/09/us-news-looking-reports-erroneous-data-best-high-s/]U.S”>U.S. News 'looking into' reports of erroneous data in Best High Schools rankings - Las Vegas Sun Newspaper)</p>
<p>The top schools all have student bodies are self selected. Their worst students are probably high achievers in other public schools. One of the top ten that I know very well is a charter school that admits students through lottery. Once a child is in, then all his/her siblings will automatically be admitted. However if the parents are board members, their kids’ admissions are automatic and the criteria of board members can be based on the ability to fundraise.</p>
<p>After slots for children of board members,faculty,“friends” are filled, there are not too many left for the general public.</p>
<p>I’ve never liked this ranking. DS’ old high school is a bronze school, but it’s in friendly competition with a neighbor school that ranks near the top. Students from his school out-score on standardized tests, in various academic teams, in top-college admissions etc.
The difference? DS’ school did not offer AP courses. The principal had no interest in following the AP formula. DS and many of his classmates still took the tests and performed very well - DS was a Nat’l AP Scholar, without a single AP course. He and his classmates were some of the best-prepared students for college that I’ve ever seen.</p>
<p>I see some of the rankings for other schools in my state and I just shake my head.</p>
<p>Looking at my area of my state, the “best” schools match up very closely with the wealthiest neighborhoods. From what I can tell, the “best” schools have little or nothing to do with the teaching.</p>
<p>We’re in the top of the state, top 2% nationally this year, no IB…just a few APs, kids must take the AP test if they take the AP class. It’s a really good/competitive high school but no bells and whistles no extra STEM classes, just a solid little school that does a decent job on college prep. The grid DOES show the number of kids who passed the AP tests so I suspect the AP weighting must take into consideration the passing rate. It wouldn’t bother me one way or the other if the kids’ school fell totally out of the rankings because it doesn’t change a thing…the education is still pretty darn good that they are getting and my oldest two didn’t have any problems transitioning to college and that’s all one really wants from a K-12 education.</p>
<p>wanted to clarify - because DS’ school doesn’t offer AP classes, (and students must take the exams at other schools where they are offered) the exams that students take aren’t counted in the USNWR calculations.</p>
<p>Our local public school is in the top 1%. If you left out the schools that have admissions tests it would be even higher. I agree that it’s largely about economics. Our school district is very affluent, with some small apartment communities for middle and low income residents – which is where we live. The schools in our county that also made it to the top 1% are equally affluent.</p>
<p>I am not really sure what this means for my son. On one hand the school has amazing resources. On the other hand, in a school where 94% of kids go on to college, 70& of kids pass at least 1 AP exam, and about 20% get the full IB diploma, and where the average SAT score is 140 points above the national average, i wonder how he’ll do on things like class rank.</p>
<p>Any thoughts?</p>
<p>I’ve never believe in life that it was better to be the top kid at weak high school than a top 20% at a very competitive school. Colleges can figure these things out, it’s their job to do so. Bragging rights are always fun…and the very things that make people disdain Newsweek high school ranking should make them distain Newsweek college ranking, but often you don’t get to pick your high school and you get to “pick” a college. Just like there high schools pumping out great kids that aren’t top ten in their state, there are colleges pumping out great students that aren’t at the top of the Newsweek college rankings.</p>
<p>Any listing that has Staten Island Tech ranked above Stuy and Queens High School at York College way above Bronx Science is silly.</p>
<p>I just looked at the rankings, and I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry; once I finish gagging, I’ll decide.</p>
<p>The wholly inadequate rural high school I pay not to send my kids to got a bronze medal!</p>
<p>Uh … USNWR reports the student/teacher ratio as 6:1. It’s actually 13:1.</p>
<p>USNWR reports the reading proficiency level as 52%; it’s actually 30% (!).</p>
<p>(My data comes from the school report card published by the state board of education.)</p>
<p>This is a school that offers neither honors nor AP classes - in fact, offers NO academic electives other than Spanish. Has no art program … no music program other than band … no shop or consumer science … only a half-time business education teacher … an English faculty of one, for 120 students … etc.</p>
<p>I would not have believed there could be anything less valid than the USWNR college rankings. I now so believe.</p>
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^^ Precisely the case in my state.</p>
<p>I can’t complain since my child’s school is usually near the top of the list, but I since it’s not an AP factory, it will never be #1 using this methodology. </p>
<p>I find it interesting what they use for tie-breakers to separate one 100% school from another, when some of these schools are specialized, and some are comprehensive. There’s just no comparison. That’s not a knock on either one. They are just comparing apples to oranges.</p>
<p>Still, the kids will have fun selling the t-shirts with their USNews ranking again this year. I actually think that part is the most fun for them.</p>
<p>He should have had a chat with the faster-than-the-speed-of-light physics guys, and gotten a reminder to check the data and check the calibration. The numbers for quite a few of the schools in the top 25 are completely implausible, and impossible to reconcile with other publicly available data on those schools.</p>
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<p>I was wondering about the same thing. No need to use this or that methodology, just rank a district by its median household income. Same thing for college rankings, just look at the size of their endowment.</p>