<p>It must be an absurd way to rank schools, because the results are ridiculous. I can only comment on my area, Long Island, NY. South Side High School in Rockville Centre is ranked #22 in the country. No disrespect, but if you asked the three million people living here to rank the best schools on Long Island, there’s a good chance South Side doesn’t even rank #22 locally. Again, no disrespect to South Side, but it’s a commentary on how good most of the schools are in this area. No reasonable person would rank South Side ahead of renowned schools like Great Neck, Manhasset, Roslyn, Jericho, Syosset, Ward Melville, Half Hollow Hills, etc.</p>
<p>I try not to get upset but every year these rankings just…rankle me. Meaningless but good for bragging rights.</p>
<p>The top ranked school in our area is, of course, a college-prep public that requires an entrance test. Well, OF COURSE students there do well. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>We who live here know there are many other wonderful high schools in the area, offering many APs and sending 95% of their students to college. The other 5%? Go to voc-ed and get JOBS, or they are special ed students in an excellent spec ed program but not going to college. </p>
<p>What does US News know? Zip. They can put their manufactured ratings wherever they fit.</p>
<p>The rankings that US News released recently are bogus. They are based incomplete information from our school. US NEWS only considers AP or IB data but not both together, and US News will not consider all the AP exams that a senior has taken…why? The answer is easy…they are cheap and lazy. The cannot get a true picture of what seniors have taken without specific data from a senior’s high school. It is easy and cheap to simply get a batch pf general numbers from college board or IBO. It would take some effort and it would be more expensive to get a true picture from individual high schools. </p>
<p>Hey US News! If you cannot and will not put in the resources to do the job of ranking in a meaningful way, then go back into hibernation and don’t claim you can do the job of ranking high schools. Your methods stink!</p>
<p>As far as Michigan is concerned, the International Academy of Bloomfield Hills is ranked #1 in the state and #6 in the country. That’s no surprise, given the USNWR standards–students at my high school, which was a magnet that enrolled a lot of students of modest income and some living at the poverty line, would joke that the Bloomfield Hills kids could hire tutors for their tests and take as many as they’d like. </p>
<p>We were #2 in the state according to ACT scores, and the closest any of us came to tutors or Kaplan was buying a $20 test prep book or taking one out of the library. Many kids had to get their AP fees waived, and even the girl in my class most committed to the AP game only took maybe four tests a year. </p>
<p>I’m not sure I buy the claim that only 42% of our kids passed the AP tests, either, but since the school was trying to play the ranking game by pushing all of the juniors into an incredibly interesting but very demanding APUSH class, that may have depressed the statistics.</p>
<p>Bottom line, count me among the skeptics of the rankings.</p>
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<p>Used to be because they sold magazines. They didn’t sell enough, so now it’s because they generate website views.</p>
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<p>Those obsessed with prestige.</p>
<p>The rankings are totally bogus. The data is faulty, too. Colleges know this!</p>
<p>For example, HS #3, The School of Science & Engineering Magnet in Dallas, has an AP Exam Pass rate of 51%. FIFTY-ONE PERCENT. That means that students at this school fail nearly HALF of the AP exams they take. This is worthy of being ranked #3 in the country? I have a hard time believing this is anywhere near “tops.”</p>
<p>Similarly, Green Valley HS in Henderson, Nevada, is ranked #13, in part due to its “4:1 Teacher to Student Ratio” and “100% AP Tested” scores. US News reports that the school has 477 students and 111 teachers. In reality the school has 2,850 students and 111 teachers (24-to-1 ratio) - plus a 64% AP rate ([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)). The school also isn’t 99% economically disadvantaged either (as US News reports).</p>
<p>Maybe the backlash of all the erroneous stats will be that US News stops publishing this ranking list. Maybe.</p>