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.
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