What Makes a 'Best High School'?

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Maybe I am misreading something, but the title of your blog is "What Makes A Best High School?" I was hoping to see what elements you took into consideration when ranking these schools, but I cannot find them. Could you tell me where to look or send me a copy? Thanks!

Michelle Corbin of MS 9:53PM October 20, 2009

Have you looked into ranking Cerritos High School? This high school has been in the top 250 high schools nationwide for the past few years now as ranked by CNN's best high school review.

Frederick Mallare of CA 1:24PM October 05, 2009

These rankings must be old. Divernon's last high school graduating class was 2007. I have a hard time taking these rankings serious, when a school has been closed for 2 years and still is ranked

Jim of IL 3:08PM August 18, 2009

Boston Latin Academy should be gold rather than silver. It was the girls school counter part of boston latin when both were not co-ed. It is much better than MATCH which was a gold school last year. this is actually scary.

abasiama of MA 8:16PM July 27, 2009

It seems like more of a marketing tool for high schools to use to attract more students and sell the public on raising their proerty taxes through more referendums!
Students are going to high school, not college. The schools need to focus on the giving the students a solid foundation in math, science, etc. so they can succeed in college and beyond.

Paul Barry of MN 9:35AM July 27, 2009

We have a top performing high school in our area. The school encourages only their top performing students to take these tests and seperates kids with even small Learning Disabilities from the regular classes to keep the test scores of the district higher. This list should be named The High Schools With The Best Selection Process. The ability of a school to select and admit the highest caliber students is no measure of it's ability to teach. An "A" student tends to learn even with a mediocre teacher because the child is driven and will use resources outside the classroom to learn.
As with anything else visit the school yourself before you pay top dollar in real estate just to be in a certain district or school. Some schools deserve to be on this list and some don't.

Susan of CT 10:45PM June 13, 2009

One school in this area has an ambitious principal who simply required that all 12th graders take an AP class. I know that many of those students did NOT score high enough to get college credit, yet this school has bragging rights because they're on THE list.

Billy Pullen of TN 11:39AM June 10, 2009

How can a school that receives 37.7 on the College Readiness Index receive a 'Silver' medal?!?
Makes no sense to me. I guess I am just not educated enough to understand this scheme.

Carolyn of FL 3:21PM May 28, 2009

I agree with Julie. Having had seven years of in-depth experience with US News flawed and biased ranking system for colleges, I approach this high school scheme with considerable doubts. Had US News ranked more honestly and completely (for example, no special effort to rank private colleges above public universities, and no separation of liberal arts colleges from universities), I might take it more seriously.
As it is, I expect this is just hype to sell magazines to parents who want to have a false sense of knowledge. It's an American disease.
Just for information, I taught at a high school that regularly sent its graduates to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Caltech, MIT, etc. It had average SAT scores and AP scores far higher than any school in the US. That doesn't make it a great high school -- but it surely had capable and motivated students.

Fredric Dennis Williams of AZ 1:45PM May 21, 2009

I am a graduate of one of the schools labeled as being one of the best high schools( Frisc City High School in Monroe County Alabama) and all I want to know is, if our school can receive such praise last year then why is it being closed this year?

shawanda of AL 4:02AM May 15, 2009