America's Best High Schools Methodology
How we got from 21,069 public high schools to the top 100
Reader Comments
my school man :)
Apollo high school is the best love it;)
my school man :)
Apollo high school is the best love it;)
croatannnnn
:) we deserve it! we work hard and have funnn! :))))0
Mohammad
Northside is one of the best schools ever man,
How to look good in the ratings
Any school can look good in the U.S. News ratings if they are sufficiently aggressive in excluding students who might make them look bad. For example, all three of the East Baton Rouge, Louisiana, public schools featured in the ratings, Baton Rouge High, McKinley High, and LSU Laboratory School have highly selective admissions and dismiss students for academic weakness. The students who are not selected or who are dismissed are steered to failing schools and are not included in these schools ratings. Admissions criteria supposedly inlcude "giftedness" or "talent" although political connections are also considered as exemplified by the immediate admission of Governor Piyush "Bobby" Jindal's kids to the LSU Lab School without them even applying. Based on residence they would have attended one of the failing schools near the Governor's Mansion. In short, these schools are not exemplars of educational excellence, they are just the pinnacle of elitism in a state largely incapable of running good public schools. The students at these schools have a very high opinion of their performance and importance, but the surprising thing is, given the selective standards, that they don't perform better.
Until the beginning of this school year the East Baton Rouge Parish Public School system did run one school, Baton Rouge Center for the Visual and Performing Arts (BRCVPA), that attempted to achieve excellence without selective admissions. BRCVPA is a Pre-K to 5th grade feeder school for the arts programs at Baton Rouge and McKinley High Schools. Children were selected for BRCVPA from those who applied by lottery. The audition tape and portfolio required to apply to kindergarten were just screens to eliminate parents who didn't support the program, and had no bearing on which children were selected. This popular arts based program attracted the full range of students from special education to "gifted" and "talented", and still has a waiting list even after the program was cloned at a second elementary school. Despite the range of students, it has enjoyed some measure of success comparable to other Louisiana schools such as the selective Westdale Academic Magnet Elementary. In the 2007-2008 school years it had 100% passage on the Louisiana Educational Assessment Program test. Nonetheless, although the arts program is excellent, writing and science are notably weak. Abruptly, at the beginning of the 2008-2009 school year the principal announced that henceforth children who needed to be retained would not be allowed to return to the school. They are to be steered to lower performing schools and eventually "vocational" education. Thus was abandoned the last attempt to provide an excellent public school education to all students and not just an elite few.
Maybe elitism is the model of public schools that U.S. News wants to promote, but I doubt if it is good either for the students or the country.
Croatan
Is awesizzle! don't even hateizzle.
One school not deserving
Monroe High School is not deserving of this honor. I live in Monroe and work with students and I know that MHS suspends at risk, high risk and students with an IEP at the beginning of the year to make their numbers look good. I wonder if US News considers suspension rates. My advice to people is to not take the numbers for what they are worth. Do research on your own. In my opinion, the top 100 high schools is a joke simply because I know what REALLY goes on at MHS!
to j of nc
yes, teachers should be respected as professionals! but most public school districts do not hold teachers accountable for their instruction. most teachers are teaching the test and that is where the problem is! nurses are held to a much higher standard due to patient safety and standards of care, and therefore make more money. i would venture a guess that most parents (and nurses) would vote for pay raises for teachers when the accountablity is raised.
