More Competition for the Bunkel Index & WBTY

Prep School Admissions
1

<p>Watch out Bunkel, WBTY, icy & Newsweek! US News & World Report has just issued its ranking of the best high schools in the US. They have focused on the public high school segment which no one owns yet. Best</a> High Schools - AOL Money & Finance</p>

<p>Here is the US News link [url=<a href="http://www.usnews.com/sections/education/high-schools/index.html%5DUS"&gt;http://www.usnews.com/sections/education/high-schools/index.html]US&lt;/a> News and World Report Best High Schools and High School Rankings </p>

2

<p>That annual survey is just ridiculous. They calculate the % of students passing AP or IB exams for each school and then rank schools in descending order based on that %. That's pretty much it.</p>

<p>It's designed to sell issues. Much like putting big stars from popular teams on the cover of sports magazines (or, every now and then, a swimsuit model) is intended to increase pick-ups, even if there's not much substance inside (which is especially true for said swimsuit edition).</p>

<p>Morning Announcement for Principal: "Ooooh...hey everybody! Our school is ranked #48! In the entire nation! Everybody go buy Newsweek so we can see our school's name next to the number 48!"</p>

<p>Local newspapers also love to report on the local school that done good. And people read about it and think, "Hey, look, Newsweek! They still publish that?"</p>

<p>EDIT: Ranking Formula</p>

<p>The</a> Ranking Formula - US News and World Report</p>

<p>They go through two sorts of data to come up with a manageable number of schools to consider. 11 states and DC were not included in this study because those states didn't provide enough information. From the 2,000 schools that got through the first two sieves, the rankings were based on the % of students that got a 3 or higher before graduating (75%) and the % of students that took an AP test (25%). The denominator was the number of seniors. So having lots of juniors and sophomores taking AP exams and a group of students taking multiple AP exams can really boost a school's ranking even though it has a wide range of performance.</p>

3

<p>What is the Bunkel Index and the WBTY? I've seen it mentioned on these boards like it's a joke or something. Is it serious? What is it?</p>

4

<p>Yes, it is a joke. However, Newsweek, US World & New Report, the Wall Street Journal and others are attempting to rank schools using various criteria.</p>

5

<p>@ newyorker22: I sent you a PM with the information you need to purchase the entire suite of software for Bunkel ranking system software. You get it at 10% off the MSRP and -- full disclosure -- I get a 10% commission if you buy it from my personal web mall.</p>

<p>Not only will you get the complete and up-to-date Bunkel rankings, but the suite of software includes a ranking system that uses close to 300 ranking parameters (many of them with subparameters) that licensees can choose from and assign weights to in order to determine the ideal school. There's also a financial aid ranking service that tracks school endowments, major gifts, and investment returns so you can determine which schools may see a shortfall (or spike) in endowment funds available to fund financial aid needs. Concerned parents will also appreciate the Wackenhut Security Assessment for boarding schools which rates schools' safety in terms of experiential data, number of injury-free days per year/per 100 students, natural disaster threat review, communications policies and capabilities, and -- best of all -- a kidnapping/intruder assessment in which the Wackenhut pros review the systems in place that would deter, detect and deactivate (DDD) a kidnapper or armed madman. In this post-Virginia Tech world we live in, I don't see how a parent can possibly forego this kind of critical analysis.</p>

<p>The full suite -- The Bunkel Bundle -- is more fully described in my PM. You will soon see why Bunkel is, by light years, the superior ranking system when compared to WBTY and USN&WR and Newsweek, etc.</p>

<p>@ Burb Parent: The only joke is WBTY.</p>

6

<p>Hey, D'yer Maker, I have a business venture to propose. Instead of ranking schools, we could rank kids. All the kids in the entire nation, nay, the world! It shouldn't be too hard to come up with criteria - % of hours spent studying, number of friends on Facebook, % of allowance put into savings each month, propensity for taking out the garbage without being asked, athletic ability, IQ, ability to talk a teacher into a higher grade, body-fat index, etc. And then, we sell our rankings to the schools and let them bid for our children. I guess the College Board is already doing this, sort of, but they leave out so many of the intangibles. I think we could do a much more thorough job of predicting more than just freshman success - I bet we could even do a thorough analysis and figure out who is most likely to become a good donor. No one's selling that yet. We just need a catchy name....</p>

7

<p>I'm on a roll here. If we think big enough we could sell packages to parents to help them raise their child's rankings. We could call it Stanley Kap.. or Duke T, no, well the name could come later. The real trick would be to get parents to pay to prep the kids and evaluate the kids, get the schools to pay to get the info, maybe we could even start junior schools to prepare the kids for the whole process or sell them practice assessments. Nah, no one would ever fall for it. ;)</p>

8

<p>Here is the New York Time's commentary on the US News & World Report attempt to rank public high schools <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/05/education/05education.html?_r=1&oref=slogin%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/05/education/05education.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&lt;/a> You need to register first -- it's free. Of special interest is Dyer's defence of the publication. I thought you would be promoting the Bunkel instead.</p>

9

<p>I guess the pre-Ks better start cooking their numbers. It sounds like USN is on the way....</p>

10

<p>Apparently Sam Freedman reads this Board.</p>

<p>


</p>

<p>


</p>

<p>Following up on Ms. Bergman's cynical assessment of where this is all going, let me offer this much cheerier observation: good pre-natal care is going to get the attention it deserves...and soon. Buy stock in the March of Dimes now.</p>