The Best High Schools Ranking Roundup

I question why rankings are needed in public education given that students have little choice where they can go. It is not like they cannot simply say oh that school is better and go there. I think the idea of a gold standard is a good idea, although the superficalness of relying on a rather limited data set obviously hampers it. To me, what makes a quality high school can best be described as the "vibe" which includes:

Students feel cared about by their teachers. This is evidenced in the quality of interactions between faculty and students. They greet each other in the hallways, kids are excited to be at school rather than waiting for the bell. Teachers are excited about not only sharing their kowledge, but contributing to the development of teens.

Schools position themselves as the centre of community and as such are open and interacting with the community through sports, service, and otehr activities. This can be measured by number of students invovled, number of hours contributed, type and impact of porjects undertaken. From Habitat to Basketball, from trash bashes to painting poor kids schools, from dances to multicultural days, it all adds up to invovlement. At its heart are students and teachers working together.

Schools challenge students. Not just through offering AP and IB programs, but also personal challenges such as week without walls and outward bound programs.

Preparation for the next step. My school is a university prep school, so the obvious measurable is the numebr of kids getting into college. But we should be looking at how successfully they transfer to college as well. Were they prepared to succeed academically and socially? are they contributing to campus life? Moreover, schools need to challenge students beyond the curriculum allow students to engage in public issues. Do people come in and talk about things teens should career about? This could be career day or a speaker on environmental issues or AIDS or third world debt.

Schools should feel like a community. They should have a strong identity--not one just by a logo, but by real communion: Assemblies and pastoral care, House systems and fun days, space for students to be with each other in positive ways.

Schools should provide students with plenty of opportunities to apply their learning in authentic ways. Kids need to be connected to the real world through work experience, internships and special projects. Grades should not just be based on tests, but real world assessments that reflect authentic practices in the world of work.

Kids should be allowed to explore and develop specific passions. This requires passionate teachers who are constantly rejuvenating. Measure how much money is spent on professional development? measure how many teachers are putting time in keeping current. Moreover see how many clubs schools have that allow kids more hands on opportunities.

Schools need to have vibrant cultural lives. Performing and visual art courses are only the beginning. How many students are involved in plays and productions, attending concerts and coffee houses. Do they offer poetry competitions along side science fairs and soccer games? Does the school newspaper accompany a literary journal? IS student art prominently on display in the hallways along with trophies from sporting competitions?

I think the vibe of a school is more important than the average standardizes test scores, but the latter is just so easy to access.

Shaun McElroy

www.internationalcounselor.org

It seems very strange that Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin rank very high on the national test scores, yet very few schools from those states received a silver or a gold.

all these silly school rankings

I managed to flunk out of a public ivy my freshman year in college. My sophmore year I was at another state school without all the publishing and research credentials but with professors instead of TA's. I was on the dean's list the first semester there. I went on to graduate with honors. Later I took classes at another public ivy and pulled A's and B's so it's a s much student motivation as school ranking.

My wife and I sent our children to parochial school for the first six years of their education. When they got to public school in junior high, one child has excelled from the training and gone into the IB programs the high school offered. The other child saw it as their opportunity to now coast into retirement now that they were only fifty years out. You plant corn you get corn!

It's a three legged stool between the institution, the student and the parents. Different kids have differing goals and values and let's not forget friends! Peers have a great deal to do with how well a child is motivated. At which point parents and teachers can guide, but it is ultimately up to the individual.

I was in a high technology career and due to circumstances in and out of my control, my position became obsolete. I have had to return to school as a non traditional student (as a pentagenarian <--- is this a word?) at a local junior college. Some people look upon these institutions with disdain, but they also fill a definite need and educational niche. They may not be as rigorous as the land grant institutions, but they ultimately educate students so they are productive in the workforce as they choose to be, which seems often more productive than some ivy graduates!

Having attended one of the high schools listed in the top 100, Brooklyn Technical High School, and having seen the lack of quality in the school work my 5 siblings were given at other Public and Parochial High Schools, I defintely feel that schools need to feel comfortable with competition. If a person has not attended a "highly competitive" high school, he/she will never understand the environment that exists. Visiting a school for a couple of days to do an evaluation does not necessarily present any insight into exactly how meaningful the education being provided can be.

I personally think our kids in public school don't need to hear parents, teachers and adminstrators complain about taking tests. We stress our kids out by our "fear of taking tests." My son attended Lincoln Park High School in Chicago. He was enrolled in the International Baccaleaurate Program and then he went on to score 1400+ on SAt's and attend and graduate from University of Chicago. He was not taught how to take a test. He was taught to read and learn as much as he could. He practiced taking tests on his own, but test taking was not a separate class using up valuable class time. If the schools

would stop teaching to the test and just focus on teaching the kids the skills they need the tests will take care of themselves.

Unfortunately, the "vibe" I pick up in a school is completely subjective to whatever my paradigm may be on that particular day. I would caution anyone who uses the "vibe" of the school and not test scores to evaluate whether or not they should send their kid to a school.

Test scores, % of kids who attend college and the breakdown of the colleges the kids go on to attend mean a great deal more to me because I know that some schools provide better education than others period.

Why are Catholic High Schools not represented...?

America's Best High Schools 2008

I'm a teacher at Eastern Sierra Academy, a small rural school in a remote town in Eastern California. I've read your methodology for ranking "America's Best High Schools 2008" and I believe our school should be ranked quite high on your list.

We serve a community that is almost exclusively middle to low income and is about 40% Hispanic. We consistently rank among the top 50 schools (out of almost 1000) in the state with our API scores. We also have a robust AP program in place at the school. 100% of our seniors have taken at least 4 AP exams and our AP pass rate is usually between 75% and 40%.

For the 2005-2006 school year, 100% of our seniors had taken AP exams and 60% of them had passed at least one test. So if I take the formula you provided for "College Readiness" we have a score of 70.0. This would put us at #54 on your list of Gold Medal Schools.

If there is some way we be included on your list, our students and faculty would be very grateful for the recognition.

Best High Schools?

The endeavor to rank high schools was an admirable one, but the methodology selected to determine these schools is questionable. To illustrate this, six out of the seven high schools in Washington County, Maryland were named to this list. This sounds quite impressive and would certainly have to rank this county as one of the top in the country if these results are indicative of the ability of schools “to provide a good education across their entire student body”. However, for the same time period of the study, Washington County scored below the state and national average in the SAT. Its passing rate for the Advanced Placement tests was also significantly lower that both the state and national averages. In addition, the percentage of Washington County students completing a college-prep level curriculum in high school was below the state average. Even more telling though is the report published by the Maryland Higher Education Commission which showed that Washington County students in college required more remedial coursework than the state average in all six of the measurable categories. These factors certainly don’t indicate that Washington County is among the best in Maryland let alone the best in the US.

The Best High Schools Ranking Roundup

I think this kind of analysis is important and should continue.

Are there any plans to perform similarly analyze parochial schools and perhaps produce a comparison?

Many inner cities have parochial high schools which draw their students from impoverished neighborhoods largely populated by minorities and many single parent families. The schools remained as population shifts occurred over the years.

Many of the students at these schools are there on scholarships and many others have their tuition wholly or partially waived, based upon the degree of financial need.

It would be interesting to see how well these kids stack up against those in public high schools.

Listing

Where do I go to look at the entire list?

The Taft School

I am looking for a ranking on the Taft School in Watertown, CT

From Bob Morse: Taft didn't make the list.