Posted on 05/12/2006 5:29:12 PM PDT by Pikachu_Dad
The 100 Best High Schools in America The Goal: Never has high school had to do so much for so many. NEWSWEEK unveils the top schools across the country and suggests what others can do to make the grade.
By Barbara Kantrowitz Newsweek
May 16 issue - In the winter of 1821, the civic leaders of Boston approved what was then a radical idea. At a time when advanced learning was largely restricted to the wealthy, they voted to create the country's first public high school, open to boys 12 or older who could pass an entrance exam. Ever since, Americans have been trying to figure out exactly what public high schools should do. Should they concentrate on preparing the best and the brightest for college? Should there be more emphasis on vocational training? Should students with different abilities and goals learn in the same classrooms, or should they be segregated into different tracks or even different schools? The debate has never been more contentious than now, when the attention of politicians, business leaders, educators, parents and students is focused on an unprecedented explosion of new ideas in big cities and small towns across the country. Everything is up for grabs: curriculum, size, even the idea of school itself. With new technology that puts the world at their keyboards, students can learn without a classroom or a formal teacher.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
This list is fatally flawed. Is somebody getting a kickback for pimping the AP tests?
First, the only rating system used is "the number of AP tests taken" divided by the "number of graduating seniors".
Second, 'elite' schools were not included. Schools that scored 'too high' on the SAT and ACT tests were EXCLUDED from the list (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12551652/site/newsweek/)
So if you are going to a top notch high school but its SAT scores are too high, your school will not make this list. If you are going to a top notch high school but it does not give AP tests, your school will not make this list.
But if your school gives everybody AP tests, even if nobody passes those tests, then they will be rated as the number one high school in America.
Top stupid quotes: "I decided not to count passing rates in the way schools had done in the past because I found that most American high schools kept those rates artificially high by allowing only A students to take the courses."
"To send a student off to college without having had an AP or IB course is like insisting that a child learn to ride a bike without ever taking off the training wheels. It is dumb, and in my view a form of educational malpractice."
"We count all tests taken at the school, and not just those taken by seniors."
"As for the words “top” and “best,” they are always based on criteria chosen by the list maker. My list of best film directors may depend on Academy Award nominations. Yours may be based on ticket sales. I have been very clear about what I am measuring in these schools. You may not like my criteria, but I have not found anyone who understands how high schools work and does not think AP or IB test participation is important."
"6. Why don’t I see on the NEWSWEEK list famous public high schools like Stuyvesant in New York City or Thomas Jefferson in Fairfax County, Va., or the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy in Aurora, Ill., or Whitney High in Cerritos, Calif.? We do not include any magnet or charter high school that draws such a high concentration of top students that its average SAT or ACT score significantly exceeds the highest average for any normal-enrollment school in the country. This year that meant such schools had to have an average SAT score below 1300, or an average ACT score below 27, to be included on the list.
The schools you name are terrific places with some of the highest average test scores in the country, but it would be deceptive for us to put them on this list. The Challenge Index is designed to honor schools that have done the best job in persuading average students to take college-level courses and tests. It does not work with schools that have no, or almost no, average students. The idea is to create a list that measures how good schools are in challenging all students, and not just how high their students’ test scores are.
Using average SAT or ACT scores is a change from the previous system we used that excluded schools that admitted more than half of their student based on grades and test scores. That system penalized some inner-city magnet schools that had high Challenge Index ratings but whose average SAT or ACT scores were below those of some normal-enrollment suburban schools, so we switched to a system that we consider fairer and clearer. The high-performing schools we have excluded from the list all have great teachers, but research indicates that high SAT and ACT averages are much more an indication of the affluence of the students' parents."
The worst private school is better than the "best" publick skool.
My daughter graduated from #3. All her AP scores were fours or fives, the majority fives. This school is the only school in the country to have two Intel science winners in one year.
Is this info testable? Our judge just said we don't need a test to pass into college paid for by the taxpayer so I ain't taking no stinking tests.
PRIVATIZE EDUCATION NOW!
So the school will pay 1/2 the cost of the exam. How nice of them.
I guess they want to pump their numbers to get a high list score.
So why is that school number 3 on the list?
The school that is number 2's E&E score is only 50% to your schools 100%.
That means that only 1/2 the seniors got a passing grade on ONE of the 9.9 tests they took.
That is abysmal.
Our particular school has an amazing statistic for the number of students who get accepted into 4 year schools. What they DO NOT WANT YOU TO KNOW is the number of kids who can't cut it, and drop out or have to return to a community college for a year or so of remedial work because the academic programs of the school were not sufficient to prepare them--- even the student who got good grades in the "honors" and "AP" classes.
One statistics parents should always ask the guidance counselors is, "How many of the students who are accepted to 4-year schools remain there after the first year?"
wow, that was some run-on sentence in the 2nd paragraph. ... sigh
I've lived in both places, and I can tell you this:
Any method that ranks Gainesville (FL) Eastside #3 and New Trier (Winnetka, IL) #295 is completely batshit insane.
My girl is just about to graduate from a high school on that list, and I'll tell you it's a zoo. The standards are awful, even in supposedly honors classes. I was in the cafeteria one day to drop something off and it was like a prison riot. There was one very beautiful girl sitting there on a table with her top pulled down, one breast exposed, and a boy sucking on it. The school in general is a madhouse with a French teacher who speaks less French than I do, and I speak almost none. What a joke.
The top two public schools in Louisiana did not make the list.
Ben Franklin (New Orleans) did not make the list because they are 'elite'. Their kids test scores are too high on the SAT to be considered.
Baton Rouge High School (Baton Rouge) and the second best school also did not make the list nor were they listed on the list of 'elite' schools.
Go figure.
Now how can you call this a list of the 'best high schools in America, when you do not list the best schools?
Oh ... it's public schools.
That explains why McQuaid Jesuit isn't listed while lesser Rochester, NY schools are.
We know where Satan's new world order will end up, a nuclear inferno, but what do you know about God's new world order? Anybody want to bet on who's new world order will dominate this planet?
33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
I don't see the discription of e&e. perhaps you would post a link.
I also noted no parochial or religious schools. If so, they would have to include Bishop England High School, Charleston, SC.
BEHS Class of 1970
>>Times have changed. I just heard on the radio that a school in CA wasn't going to allow kids that failed a basic math and English exam get their diplomas....well, they sued and won on the basis of discrimination. sigh.
Can't be said enough..allow school choice<<
I saw that - didn't the judge rule that tests discriminate against the intellectually challenged? Jeez...
A small but noticeable decline in scores on the newly expanded SAT exam has some wondering whether fatigue is affecting students' performance — an issue that could prompt the College Board to adjust the test.
Possible changes to how the SAT is administered were the primary topic at a meeting Friday in New York City of the College Board's SAT advisory committee. Some guidance counselors have called for the College Board, which owns the exam, to let students take separate sections on separate days.
The new SAT, which debuted in March 2005, now officially lasts three hours, 45 minutes, but takes longer if instructions and breaks are included.
"Right now, it's longer than the GRE, the LSAT and the GMATs, and those are all taken by college students or college graduates," said Brad MacGowan, a guidance counselor at Newton North High School in Massachusetts, who has asked the College Board to let students split up the exam.
Counting tests taken through January, scores for the upcoming college freshman class are down between four and five points on the combined math and critical reading sections, according to the College Board, which owns the SAT. Full-year numbers are expected to show a "small additional decline."
The change, over two sections totaling 1600 points, is not unprecedented; scores have changed as much as eight points per year over the last quarter century. But it would be the biggest jump in at least a decade, and sticks out because it coincides with changes made to the test. The College Board added a writing section and made other adjustments to the new test, which debuted in March 2005, but insisted scores would remain comparable.
Some colleges, however, are reporting substantial declines. The University of California system saw a 15-point drop, while La Salle University in Philadelphia saw a 12-point drop — even as their applicants looked better than last year's group by other measures.
"I've never seen better (students') records, and lower scores. Never seen it in 36 years," said Bob Voss, La Salle dean of admission.
There may be other explanations.
Typically, students' scores rise a combined 30 points on the math and critical reading sections on a second try. While more students are taking the SAT, fewer are taking it multiple times, said College Board spokeswoman Chiara Coletti. The price of the test has risen from $28.50 to $41.50, though fees are sometimes waived.
Jeff Olson, executive director of research at test-prep company Kaplan, said some high-achieving students may have decided to stick with the good scores they got on the old SAT. But he said fatigue could have played a role, too.
When Kaplan surveyed 2,000 test-takers in March 2005, 37 percent said they feared the length would affect their scores. Also, nearly half of test-takers surveyed after last June's test reported they hadn't been allowed to snack during breaks, Olson said.
More students were able to snack at subsequent tests, after the College Board changed its guidelines. But some students taking the SAT before that change may have simply run out of gas.
The College Board says it surveyed research on test-taking fatigue and, before debuting the new SAT, conducted its own study, which concluded scores would not be affected by the additional 45 minutes.
But MacGowan said that simply didn't ring true to his experience with 16- and 17-year-olds. He re-examined the research cited by the College Board and wrote up his findings in a paper posted on his Web site. Some of the research the College Board relied on dated back as far as 1921, and often involved older students and shorter tests. The College Board's own study included just 97 students, divided into three groups.
"The fatigue studies were nowhere close to conclusive," he said.
Coletti said College Board was conducting a more extensive study on fatigue, based on actual SAT exams. But she said the College Board believes it is unlikely fatigue is a factor.
The SAT committee reached no decisions Friday, but called for further analysis of potential changes and agreed to meet again this summer, ahead of its next scheduled meeting in six months.
"There really are quite a few things on the table that could be explored in terms of making the test more flexible," Coletti said. "But we don't do anything overnight."
The latest debate is unrelated to the recently revealed scoring errors on last October's SAT, but it could hurt the College Board's effort to restore its credibility after that episode. Colleges depend on SAT scores being comparable year to year because it can play a major role in determining financial aid packages, and sudden jolts can upset those formulas.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060512/ap_on_re_us/sat_scores_fatigue;_ylt=AskkUHZjcv5yqI7X7qyIQais0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MjBwMWtkBHNlYwM3MTg-
There were tons from Fla. and Texas (and even N.Y. and Calif.)
The reason is likely that we cannot replace teachers when they strike here. They are basically unaccountable.
And they may be the highest paid in the country.
They defined E and E as the percentage of seniors passing at least one AP test.
"I counted 7 out of 1061 as coming from Pa. in a quick scan with the highest being Quaker Valley at 532."
Which may mean that Pa is just not pushing advanced placement exams.
If you based in on AP tested PASSED it might have a tiny bit more meaning.
The number 3 school (number 5 overall) got a 90%.
One of the things not evident is that the average of 8 tests per student doesn't imply everyone took 8 tests. My daughter earned non-duplicated credits equal to two full years of college, and she was a rather average student at the school. I'm sure some students only took a few.
Incidently, she majored in building construction and manages projects in New York. Not your typical liberal arts grad.
37 | Myers Park* | Charlotte | N.C. | 3.686 | 17.9
GO MUSTANGS!
Today I was sitting in an airport lounge with a woman who turned out to be the head of the New Providence, NJ, HS math department. Thinking mostly like you, I asked her how big the graduating classes were. (About 150) Then I asked if any of the kids got into any of the Ivies. (I know there are problems with the Ivies, but the kids who get into these schools can generally get into any school they apply to, which I see as a credit to their HS.) I only heard about one school. Five went to Princeton last year; not too shabby in my book.
ML/NJ
I don't like busybodies. And this looks like a list of schools filled with busybodies. :-)
"The number 3 school (number 5 overall) got a 90%."
This rating scheme does not work.
The #12 school only got a 26%.
Also notice the picture they use to illustrate the article - an all girls picture with them in athletic clothing.
This is supposed to be a piece on intellectual capacity.
Couldn't they have found a few young lads? and a library?
On reading the article, it seems to me that the ration they use with the AP tests taken is a reasonable measure....the number of students taking upper level material that has a standard test and standard scoring.
I'd prefer they tie the scores into their rankings in some way, but their approach makes as much sense as one that would rely only on test scores from an SAT/ACT....even then you'd still need a ratio of the students who took and scored "well" on the test. (Whatever that would be defined as.)
I wonder if the use of AP material excludes religious schools? private schools?
You are looking at stuff that is not particularly relevant. I will admit that the scale is somewhat bogus, but I'll bet the schools that placed well are, in fact good schools. I know two of them in my hometown, and colleges send recruiters to them. My daughter (as I have said, not among the top students) was invited, along with her parents to a rather fancy recruiting dinner by UF. The IB students generally get accepted by any college they apply to.
Don't take any bets on that. There are still excellent public high schools in this country and there are hell holes of private schools.
This list is hysterical. I've spent time in all of the Miami schools listed.
I wouldn't wish them on my worst enemy's kids.
I can't send my kids to public school in Miami, although I wish I could.
They go to private schools, just like the most of the public schools teachers kids do.
We got a letter last week about the public school offering a foreign language class, Spanish, Mandarin or French. The catch was they wanted $250.00 for it. No, I'm not kidding!
"On reading the article, it seems to me that the ration they use with the AP tests taken is a reasonable measure....the number of students taking upper level material that has a standard test and standard scoring."
Then read it again.
Why would they include some magnet schools and not others?
Why would they exclude schools that do "too well on the SAT" from their list?
They should call their list, "the best of the ordinary public high schools".
You only have to look to the 2000 election to see the difference between North Florida and South Florida. Too bad for you.
"...I will admit that the scale is somewhat bogus..."
Correct. The scale is completely bogus.
I cannot believe this article and the lies......
I went to a Boston English High School graduation less than 10 years ago. There was only one white graduate that I recall. That graduate was my own step son.
Never mind the fact that Benjamin Franklin graduated from Boston Latin High School for boys back in the 1700s. It is disgraceful what passes for journalism in this country these days. Absolutely outrageous.
This list is like rating the top ten college football teams and not ranking Texas (1); USC (2); Penn State (3); Ohio State (4); West Virginia (5); LSU (6) and Virginia Tech (7) because they have too may wins.
It does not mean that the schools they list are 'bad' schools. It does mean that there are many better high schools out there.
(http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/rankingsindex)
Week 17 AP Top 25
1. Texas (65) 13-0 1,625
2. USC 12-1 1,560
3. Penn State 11-1 1,484
4. Ohio State 10-2 1,428
5. West Virginia 11-1 1,325
6. LSU 11-2 1,314
7. Virginia Tech 11-2 1,197
8. Alabama 10-2 1,081
9. Notre Dame 9-3 1,019
10. Georgia 10-3 994
11. TCU 11-1 937
12. Florida 9-3 817
12. Oregon 10-2 817
14. Auburn 9-3 799
15. Wisconsin 10-3 786
16. UCLA 10-2 778
17. Miami 9-3 589
18. Boston College 9-3 545
19. Louisville 9-3 410
20. Texas Tech 9-3 359
21. Clemson 8-4 339
22. Oklahoma 8-4 329
23. Florida State 8-5 232
24. Nebraska 8-4 128
25. California 8-4 45
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