Newsweek List of Top 1500 Public High Schools

<p>My school is getting worse and worse…
went from 300’s to 800’s in the last 5 years or so</p>

<h1>357</h1>

<p>Not bad I guess.</p>

<p>138 lol slipppppppppping oh well</p>

<p>1% free lunches? does that bring us down or something?</p>

<h1>364! Up from 544 last year</h1>

<p>539, woot!</p>

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<p>As I stated on the front page, the default ranking is obtained solely by dividing the number of AP exams taken divided by the number of graduating seniors.</p>

<p>My high school is well up on the front page and I don’t feel like it was that great of a school. I think the middle 50% on the SAT was 1100-1300 and not too many people passed AP exams.</p>

<p>Let’s hear it for Texas!</p>

<p>Rice and UT just moved to the top of our list :)</p>

<p>Mine is 144…
Yeyyy…</p>

<p>Could someone please explain to me why Stuyvesant HS in NYC isn’t on the list? For the last several years the kids at the bottom of the class are in the 99%ile in math and reading and do about 8 hours of homework every day.</p>

<p>My old school is 347!! But we’re knocked down to 3 in the state. Boo…</p>

<p>My new school isn’t even ranked. -_-</p>

<p>Our school dropped 450 spots in 4 years. I like US News’ opinion more. We’re in the top 100 there.</p>

<p>They ranked us in the 700s? Figures; we pretty much opted out of the AP program for our own special thing. Whatever; if they think that an average 1950 SAT score and having 50% of students go onto top 80 universities makes a mediocre high school then their ranking system is clearly moot. :slight_smile: I’ll always find it hilarious that a nearby high school, with an SAT average hovering around the 1250s (out of 2400), is more than five hundred spots in front of us.</p>

<p>I guess Stuyvesant was knocked out of the listings by Brooklyn Tech. lol</p>

<p>195…we were like 153 last year. The hell?</p>

<p>Stuyvesant is apparently too good to be on the list. </p>

<p>[Best</a> High Schools: The Public Elites | Newsweek Best High Schools | Newsweek.com](<a href=“http://www.newsweek.com/id/137421/page/3]Best”>http://www.newsweek.com/id/137421/page/3)</p>

<p>lol…</p>

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<p>I laughed outloud at that… that makes it sound like 55 different APs are being offered.</p>

<p>Thought I’d point something out about their “public elites” list. The fact that this list exists at all exposes the extreme weakness of their ranking system. By using AP tests as their chief measure, Newsweek has excluded schools that offer courses at a higher level than AP.</p>

<p>My son’s school, for example, offers such courses as differential equations and organic chemistry, many of which are for concurrent credit with the local state university. These are obviously beyond the AP level, and yet they would actually reduce the school’s ranking in the Newsweek system. That’s why they single them out for a separate list of “elites”.</p>

<p>So, it’s not hard to imagine that many of the schools in their top 1500 are actually much better than the rankings indicate, and some at the top much worse.</p>

<p>So…since they used high SAT and ACT scores as the basis for singling out the “elites”, why didn’t they just rank the schools by their students’ SAT and ACT scores? Huh, Newsweek??? Huh???</p>

<p>Screw rankings anyway.</p>

<p>^ that’s a nice point. :)</p>

<p>Does it strike anyone else as strange that so many of the top 100 are in the South?</p>

<p>I find it amusing that the “Public Elites” list points out that School X or Y is really impressive because it has an entrance exam… an entrance exam does not an elite school make…</p>

<p>None of the high schools in my city are on the list. However, every year our high schools produce 10 times the national average for NMS finalists. Every year, at least one of the presidential scholars is from one of our city schools. </p>

<p>There are lots of ways to provide an excellent education without having an abundance of AP classes. My sons’ high school teaches very few AP classes because they don’t want to be restricted by the particular AP curriculum but every year students get admitted to top schools. Students also often take the AP tests in areas where the school has not offered an AP class and the students get good scores. </p>

<p>This is a silly way to rate high schools in my opinion. High schools should be helping students to meet whatever goals they have for after graduation. That does not always mean a 4 year college. My oldest is very bright and folks would have considered it strange to see his lack of high level classes, but he wanted to go to music conservatory and needed practice time more than hours spent doing homework. His very bright classmate had a passion for cars. He took most of his classes senior year taking classes in auto mechanics at the local technical college. How would a plethora of AP classes help him to meet his goals. AP are not necessary or appropriate for all kids.</p>