Best High Schools: Frequently Asked Questions
Reader Comments
High School rankings
My name is Paul Casseri, and I am the Principal of Lewiston-Porter High School in Youngstown,NY. Our school has traditionally cracked the top 1000 on the Newsweek Poll. Most recently were 486. I would like to see how we were ultimately rated with the USN@WR methodology. A neighboring district not ranked through Newsweek cracked your top 1000 and we do not. My Superintendent and Board of Ed asked me and I had no response. Please let me know if you can help me with an explanation.
Science program
Where does College Preparatory School, located in or around Oakland rate? I don't see it listed in the top l00. Which high school -- with a good science program -- is the highest rated in Alameda and/or Oakland?...
High School Rankings
Your Article failed to address, or even mention, Math and Science Technology Charter High School in Philadelphia, PA. It was selected as the oustanding Charter School in the nation for 2007!!!
With the current interest on Charter Schools, which are basically public schools primarily answering to the parents rather than the school board, this is a MAJOR error!
"Best High schools" is misleading
The title of this list is very misleading. According to this criteria if your students are not black, hispanic or poor, you can't have a good school.
This is a limited list of schools that perform better than people outside the school expect them to. A list of high schools that beat the odds sounds like a good story however this list should be called "Best Disadvantaged High Schools"
Not rating all schools within the geographic area
Jackson High School in Jackson Twp Stark County Ohio was not mentioned. I guess I wonder how you are able to come up with this list if ALL schools are not rated
States Included
Why are only 40 of the 50 states included in your assesment? Is there some special reason the smaller states were left out?
Larger schools perform better as they offer more opportunities to learn
Congratulations to Adlai E Stevenson High School, enrollment 4510, for being named #77. Stevenson is one of the largest schools in Illinois.
The "small schools are better" mantra is often something you will here from the ignorant and uninformed who use this as an excuse to raise taxes and build unnecessary schools.
Larger schools offer a greater breadth of programs and opportunities for students to learn. Schools like New Trier and Stevenson are proof of that!
Best High Schools---List
How and where can i find a complete list of all the winners receiving gold, silver and bronze?? I am doing a story in journalism because my school received a silver, but I can not find what number we received.
Incomplete and Irresponsible
Considering that AP and IB are generally considered on par with each other, it seems quite irresponsible of the magazine to come out with a list that entirely ignores a good portion of schools due to their choice of advanced curricula.
It would not be bad if the magazine had created a list of "good schools" or "commendable schools," but to actually go as far as to list the supposed "100 BEST (PUBLIC) HIGH SCHOOLS" can be 1) somewhat deceiving, and 2) insulting to other great high schools that use IB in lieu of AP.
It is indeed a good thing that the magazine intends to factor IB information in for future lists, but that does not excuse the publishing of this incomplete and biased one (even though the bias was presumably not intentional.)
There are SO MANY different factors that are indicative of a great high school, a multitude of which have nothing to do with AP, IB, or standardized testing. Therefore, to base your rankings largely on college-level coursework and standardized testing is ALREADY problematic. BUT, to not even have a complete set of information for this, and nonetheless create the list is inappropriate and bound to generate dubious selections.
I can totally understand that not being able to obtain IB data is not necessarily the magazine's fault. But, what is wrong is that U.S. News was so dead set upon making this Best High Schools List that it willfully ignored the obvious shortcomings of their data.
I am sure that I am not going to get the list taken down or renamed, but I do believe that everyone should realize that this particular version of the list should never have been up in the first place.
