Washington Post Rankings of Private Schools

<p>Washington Post has come out with its ranking of private schools. There may be a bit of home cooking on the list, with two Washington DC schools within the top 5, but the list is notable in that only a few of the schools regularly discussed on this forum (Deerfield, Exeter, Andover, Middlesex, St. Paul's) appear on the list. Middlesex is the highest ranked. </p>

<p><a href="http://apps.washingtonpost.com/local/highschoolchallenge/schools/2014/list/private/"&gt;http://apps.washingtonpost.com/local/highschoolchallenge/schools/2014/list/private/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Not sure exactly what they are trying to rank, but if the #1 school has an SAT average of 1651 and an ACT averaage of 24, and the #64 school (Phillips Exeter) has an SAT average of 2100 and an ACT average of 29, it probably isn’t academic rigor. </p>

<p>Yes - a pretty bogus methodology. It’s how many college subject credit type-tests are administered per graduating class, not how well students actually do on those tests (and provides no measure of standardized SAT/ACT tests).</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/abcs-of-americas-most-challenging-high-schools/2014/04/02/bf19b1c2-b8f1-11e3-899e-bb708e3539dd_story.html”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/abcs-of-americas-most-challenging-high-schools/2014/04/02/bf19b1c2-b8f1-11e3-899e-bb708e3539dd_story.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>These lists are kind of a mystery. The D.C. area school list is supposed to focus on public school. A few private schools are listed, but they’re not the most well-known ones. Georgetown Prep, National Cathedral School, Sidwell Friends, and other heavy-hitters are not even mentioned. It makes me doubt that the “Equity and Excellence” tests were taken in every single D.C.-area school.</p>

<p>This methodology is flawed. This is similar to saying that Gordie Howe is the greatest NHL player in history because he played in the most games.</p>

<p>What a weird list. The #10 spot went to the UNIS which is not a very sought after private day school here in the city…unlike Trinity, Horace Mann (others that were listed)</p>

<p>This list, like many others, suck. </p>

<p>Its not flawed. The criteria for the list is schools that offer the most APs with students that do the best of the AP exams. “The index score is the number of college-level tests given at a school in the previous calendar year divided by the number of graduates that year. Also noted are the percentage of students who come from families that qualify for lunch subsidies (Subs. lunch) and the percentage of graduates who passed at least one college-level test during their high school career, called equity and excellence, (E&E). A § next to the school’s name denotes a private school.” This is the introduction to the list.</p>

<p>A lot of the top boarding schools don’t offer APs, which means that they can’t be put on the list.</p>

<p>Oh, I didn’t see the AP criteria. But even then, with all of these BS’s, I don’t think so. </p>

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<p>Exeter offers no APs. yet it is on the list, so in fact “they” can be put on the list. In fact, if you click on Exeter on the list, the link takes you to an information stub that clearly states that Exeter offers “0” APs. This list also mixes up day and boarding schools. It doesn’t even have mixed day and boarding school Hockaday (Dallas), arguably (by dint of college acceptance success – 3 at Harvard this year, for example, in a small class) among the best of these schools. You would think the author of the list would pass it by a few of his education buddies in public school, prep school, boarding school, etc. for a reality check before publishing this drivel and edifying it with the Washington Post imprimatur. Incredibly sloppy and very badly researched. It is completely "flawed<’ with no redeeming excuses.</p>

<p>Exeter does offer the AP tests - which is apparently what this ranking counts. It may not offer courses described as “Advanced Placement”, but obviously it expects students to be able to take the AP exams. </p>

<p>Towards the bottom of this methodology is the following statement:</p>

<p>“The Challenge Index is designed to identify schools that have done the best job in persuading average students to take college-level courses and tests. It does not work with schools that have no, or almost no, average students. We put those schools on our Public Elites list.”</p>

<p>It does not appear to have any bearing on the quality of the school itself, nor of the scores of those tests, since - as it points out - a school with higher passing percentages may indicate that it’s reserving the AP coursework for “top” students in the school … (well, duh.).</p>

<p>So I have no idea why it wants to include exceptional schools in a list that is meant to reward “average students” to take (and possibly fail) college prep subjects, except that the schools simply meet the requirement that the # of graduating students/the number of adminstered exams = at least 1.0 per student. </p>

<p>This also totally ignores the fact that many exceptional prep school students probably don’t need to “pass” AP exams, since their parents can probably afford the privilege of a paying for their child’s education in entirety (and don’t need to scrimp by accumulating credits prior to college).</p>

<p>So - essentially, the study does no more or less than it advertises - and is not meant to reflect the academic quality of schools, except to point out those that encourage students to take challenging coursework (but that don’t necessarily expect those students to succeed in such courses).</p>

<p>If you read the criteria, there is an SAT cut off score - schools with sats above this score were excluded because they dont have any “average” students. Its a dumb survey but attempt was to rank schools that do the best job prepping “average” students and eliminate schools that were considered to have too high a percentage of elite students</p>

<p>People who write these articles should spend a month on this site. After seeing all the arguments and counter-arguments about ranking, they’d find a different topic to write about.</p>

<p>How 'bout an article on which school would be best for a certain type of kid and why?</p>

<p>Stargirl, there are so many of us with fingers crossed for you. If you get any good news in the next few weeks, make sure you start a new thread to let us know. Don’t even think you can just post it in a general thread update!</p>

<p>^ yup. It deserves it’s own special thread. </p>

<p>Thanks, guys! Knowing me, I’m surprised I don’t have a draft typed up. That might be one step too far!</p>

<p>[I might just call it The Stargirl Thread!]</p>

<p>Not at all. I might or might not have a congratulations thread drafted. ;)</p>

<p>The list is garbage. I have so many problems with it I don’t think I can list them all.</p>