Entries for November 2007

Numbers can be wonderful tools for storytellers. This week we're launching a major new initiative that's packed with them: a comprehensive ranking of America's top-performing public high schools. Thanks to our partnership with School Evaluation Services, a unit of Standard & Poor's that collects and analyzes school data, it's possible to make an apples-to-apples comparison of individual high schools not only within each state but across the country. But like any of our rankings projects, America's Best High Schools is about more than the numbers. Why did certain schools do well? Who made it happen? Are some folks exaggerating their results and others quietly thriving? What lessons can we learn from the winners? Behind the rankings are narratives, profiles, tales of political courage and civic duty. We tell a few in this issue, but there are hundreds more in the trove of information we're publishing at usnews.com. We hope the numbers start a discussion on the local, state, and national level. While our main audience is consumers who need information to make good decisions—in this case, parents, taxpayers, voters, and educators—the data also provide fodder for the important national discussion about how to make better high schools. Even the federal government has not been able to come up with the kind of comparative data we're publishing, in part because creating standardized education information is a major challenge. A few states don't collect proper test scores, and some key indicators, such as graduation rates, need to be made standard nationwide. We hope to fill those holes by next year. Because sometimes you need the numbers to tell the stories. —Brian Kelly

"Power Revolution" [November 5] was very interesting, especially the "Deep geothermal" section.

The cost of college tuition often denies qualified students attendance at prestigious universities ["A Costly Cap and Gown," November 5].

Why would anyone think of building a Vietnam veterans visitors' center for the Vietnam Memorial ["A Milestone for a Memorial That Has Touched Millions," November 12]?

Thanks for the informative article "America's Best Health Plans" [November 5].

We wouldn't have to transplant so many higher-risk organs into elderly patients if Americans weren't burying or cremating 20,000 transplantable organs every year ["Older Patients Can Do Well With Kidney Transplant," usnews.com].

"An Admissions Dean's Tips for Getting In" [usnews.com], an interview with Peter Van Buskirk, a former admissions dean at Franklin & Marshall College about college admissions, provided information on a variety of admissions topics, including high school course selection, résumé building, essay writing and financial aid.

Your November 6 article on the rise of kidney disease ["Kidney Disease Increasing in U.S.," usnews.com] should be commended for pointing out the need for greater education and research in kidney disease prevention and treatment.

After reading "Classes Geared to Older Adults" [November 5], I scanned the offerings at the three of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes in the San Francisco Bay area to see what I might have missed.

I read "How to Avoid a Death Trap" [November 5] and agree almost totally with the recommendations.