<p>Maybe in other parts of the country, there is some validity in the rankings. In our state, in the area where we live, his rankings are worthless (or worse). There are two schools listed north of the Golden Gate bridge, and neither school is anything worth writing home about. He leaves out the many tops schools in Marin County, Sonoma County, Mendocino County, etc. etc. In the East Bay, his rankings are pure foolishness (if you live close enough to know which schools are good and which ones are not). His answers to FAQ are a joke. To leave out Private schools ??? Imagine a Ranking of Colleges that left out Stanford, Yale, Harvard, USC, Cal Tech, Harvery Mudd, etc. etc. It would be worthless. Of the schools in Southern California that I am familar with, he had top academic schools listed lower than some very low academic schools. It is about as worthwhile as a list that ranks high schools based on whether the Gymnasium faces east -vs- west, or south -vs- north. Number of AP exams “given” - with no regard to scores is meaningless. Would a Parent or a student choose a high school that gave a very high number of AP exams (and the average score was a “1”) or would they prefer a school that gave a lower number of AP exams (and the average score was a “4”).</p>
<p>Here is one of his ridiculous quotes (an answer to why he doesn’t include scores): “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. In some other instances, they opened the courses to all but encouraged only the best students to take the tests.”. What a stupid answer.</p>