I went to a high school that had three high schools on one campus and acted like a single high school. Students were randomly assigned a “home” school and you took classes in all three high schools, had the same access to clubs and resources, etc. Yet, one of the high schools was ranked in the 300s, one in the 400s, and one didn’t make the list. There is NO difference between the schools other than what is statistically “allowed” due to randomly placing students in their “home” schools. And yet, the rankings are pretty different.
I just thought it was interesting. As someone who thinks rankings are a bunch of crap anyway, I was amused.
It is just like the college rankings…has much more to do with which students attend than anything different the school does with them once they are there. In our area the rankings match up almost perfectly with Socio-economic rank.
What a nonsense. Where is Stuyvesant HS? Graduates are not college ready?
What is the story with this Union County Magnet HS ranked #4 that has student retention of 50%? Do they accept anyone and then kick half of students out? How can a school with this retention rate be considered the 4th best in the whole country?
My son’s high school was ranked in the top fifties.The school was very proud, but I just shook my head. Likewise, Newsweek continues to rank a certain hospital in my town as #1 in the state. Even when it was commonly considered the hospital for the indigent. People with insurance used to avoid it, but its consistent Newsweek ranking has brought in more paying customers.
In our county, 5 of the 6 schools that made the list are in some of the wealthiest pockets in the nation. There are learning centers on every other corner and they aren’t there to tutor struggling kids. Private SAT prep is a big deal in those communities. The one that is NOT housed in one of those pockets was the highest ranking and is a tiny charter school that kicks out kids who fall below a B average and has a reputation for teaching to tests. It’s a school we rejected for both our kids even though it’s just down the street.
Most of the schools in my state fall into 2 categories- very wealthy districts with little to no poverty and highly educated parents or early college high schools and gifted and talented magnets which screen kids for grades as a requirement for entrance.
Like the OP one of two local schools made the list while the other did not. Only difference between them is relative wealth of the parents. Identical programs and offerings. Almost identical test scores both state and national.
Are students so desperate to avoid going to Rutgers and other NJ publics that they do everything academically possible to get the biggest scholarships or admission to the best financial aid schools outside of NJ?
The NJ schools listed there all sound like magnet schools. This is a lot like the elite colleges saying “look at our graduation rates.” If you screen your applicant pool for the kids who will score well and graduate from any school, you are going to have high test scores and a 100 percent graduation rate. Does that make you a good school? Depends on what you want in a school.
That might well be true for the top 10, but #13 (Millburn HS) is a “regular” school with no test-in requirements. It does have “favorable” demographics, which is one reason that we chose to send our kids to a private school whose generous and wide-ranging scholarships create a much more diverse student body, both in terms of ethnicity and SES.
Just to clarify, the student bodies at all the high schools I mentioned are identical because they are just randomly assigned.
The district pulls mainly from 3 cities/townships. One is solidly middle class (med HH income ~60k) and two upper middle (~90k). However there’s quite a bit of diversity ranging from sec 8 housing to Red Wings players. We’re also the 3rd/4th biggest district in the state and all students go to the same high school park so it’s not stratified by income (unless of course parents pull their kids and put them in private school which is fairly common)
The list is not complete. I have seen schools that I know about and the others that are considered better (much much better and in some cases are more selective than many colleges ) are not the list. I do not trust this list at all.
Hah! Our high school isn’t on the list at all – and it’s usually in the top 100 of these types of lists. They go nuts listing all these rankings on their website homepage. I can imagine their reaction to this one … god forbid they don’t make a list!
SansSerif, do not worry, the Newsweek list is not good at all.
Check another one - Niche.
I have good reason to say so. I am a bit familiar with the top test-in HSs in NYC.
Specifically, Stuyvesant is not on the Newsweek list either, while Brooklyn Tech is #39. Since I know that it is just not so, I checked more lists. Niche is listing Stuyvesant as #4 nationally in publics, while Brooklyn Tech is #327. This is more like it.
Sorry, Newsweek list, I do not consider you at all. I have no idea how they come up with this rankings that is skipping some very best public HS’s in a nation.
I also liked the Niche list for privates.