<p>Indeed, northeastmom, earlier this year when our school district was debating opening up AP exams to everyone who wished to take them, real estate brokers chimed in that people march into their offices with these stupid lists intact.</p>
<p>jnmom:</p>
<p>"^^^ Right after they release the Lamaze/birthing center/play group ratings. "</p>
<p>ROFL</p>
<p>you are very funyy 
I got to show it to my kids.</p>
<p>This list is absurd. For example, many of the seniors in our high school, Thomas Wootton, don’t take AP courses. Instead they are taking courses at the local college for credit or they participate in our College Institute program whereby local professors teach actual college courses in our high school for actual college credit. I don’t think that any of these courses are counted in Jay Matthew’s equation.</p>
<p>Good grief…my d’s high school has no data in the E/E category…though I know that a large number of seniors take at least one AP and we have an extremely strong AP English department and I would assume a large number of passing grades. This year, we had about 80 AP Scholars. I wonder…does this mean our principal just failed or refused to submit data? Two other high schools in our district are ranked much higher, but our school offers far more AP classes (and has many, many more NMF, NMC & AP Scholars.)</p>
<p>IB schools get hammered in this ranking, because you can take way more AP tests than IB.</p>
<p>It seems just the opposite for our school district (same one as Warblers). The 3 schools from our district listed in the top 100 all have IB programs while other schools that are locally considered to be better schools were ranked much lower. A good example is my own S’s school. We live in a suburb of a large southern city. Our town has 2 high schools with virtually the same demographics. The school with the IB program is in the top 100 while our S’s school (no IB just ap’s) just a few miles away(literally) is ranked in the 200’s. </p>
<p>Also, our school district encourages everyone to take AP’s and pays for all testing.</p>
<p>Well I still want to see the elementry school rankings! How can a High School be evaluated properly if the feeder school evaluations aren’t taken into account?
Seems like they are really missing the boat here</p>
<p>This list highly ranks a HS from the area I used to live in, a district that was bad enough that that we pulled the kids out of the schools there, way ahead of the school they’re in now, one with one of the highest SAT scores and % seniors to college and 4 year colleges in the state, not to mention the colleges that the kids get into here as opposed to there. </p>
<p>While there is some overlap, and some excellent schools do make the list, others that are as good or better are penalized by the fact that these factors are ignored. The colleges are well aware of this (the outcomes speak for themselves) and know that the list cannot be taken out of context and is meaningless on its own.</p>
<p>I’m not a big fan of the USNews rankings either , but they are hands down a more valuable resource than this in terms of providing meaningful information. Our big city newpaper also publishes stats on the high schools more in line with the USNews categories each year and paint a dramatically different picture.</p>
<p>This ranking includes Mathews’ misguided attempts at Affirmative Action. Schools that shouldn’t have made the list (because more than 1/2 of their students had to take entrance exams or were admitted because of grades/scores) make the list (including the #1 school) because their average SATs are below 1300 or average ACTs below 27. So, just as affirmative action works in college acceptances, it is also working here for acceptance on this Newsweek list. Check the racial makeup of those schools (including #1) on the list. </p>
<p>Did anyone else notice this? Or did he slip it by everyone?</p>
<p>To be fair, either ALL or NO public high schools with special admissions criteria should be included. The very best public high schools are not allowed on the list, so it <em>appears</em> that high schools are the best that actually aren’t. Affirmative Action strikes again!</p>
<p>His definition of “average” seems a little strange to me…</p>
<p>Isn’t this just a high SES ranking? </p>
<p>My old HS and my kid’s HS are both on here; the places I recognize are schools in very affluent suburban places (by & large) and magnet schools.</p>
<p>The truly impressive schools are places with low SES that perform above expectations. I am not that impressed by a school that can spur a 99th% demographic on to AP success…</p>
<p>How can Newsweek possibly promote Jay Matthew’s idiocy? Is this a well selling issue? How absolutely absurd to call that list the best high schools in America. It’s like if US News did a list and left off all privates and the elite publics.</p>
<p>Help me out here. So, by living in a town which wouldn’t make this list in a thousand years, my kids weren’t forced to take a zillion AP’s just to be listed as having taken the “most challenging schedule”, could be themselves without feeling they had to compete in the prepping/tutoring etc. rat race, still got into great colleges where they’re apparently doing fine despite the hardship of not having been at a “competitive” hs, and we can afford to pay for them because we live in a “nondesirable” school district. What am I missing? :)</p>
<p>You’re not alone garland. In order to pay for college, we’ve stayed in an undesirable school district, in our first home. I imagine my kids will be able to write fabulous essays about how they coped in a school with average SATs less than 1000, and only seven AP courses. Oh the hardships they face!</p>
<p>The school still manages to send the top kids to the Ivys and such, but better to keep that a secret and let everyone else follow the Lists.</p>
<p>Do we live in the same town???</p>
<p>I figured out this secret about 7 years ago when my friend, who has two kids started applying to college. Garland, she lives in NJ, so it may be where you live In this community her D was a shining star, and she got a very large scholarship, where she currently attends. Her D is very bright, but she would not have had the same gpa had she graduated from a very competitive rat race school, and so she would not have received the scholarship. She would not have been able to attend without that scholarship. She was tutored, for free I might add, for her sat IIs. Her mother had her privately tutored, briefly, to bring up one section of the sat. </p>
<p>I also have another NJ friend who lives in a less competitive district. Her D got a full ride to a LAC. I doubt she would have gotten that offer from a very competitive hs.</p>
<p>Oh, and both of these kids are thriving. One of them is currently attending an excellent law school.</p>
<p>The less-than-Ivy performance of a few students should not and will not be representative of the performance of strong Ivy-league candidates.</p>
<hr>
<p>Im not really complaining about how our school does. Im very proud of my high school and how great it has constantly been. Im pointing out that the ranking system used by Newsweek is VERY faulty.</p>
<p>The list is meaningless. Schools submit themselves to the list. Many of the good schools don’t have the time to bother with it. I don’t see one school of anyone I know on there. I call our high school and was told the counselor didn’t have the time to submit. Too busy taking care of students.</p>
<p>This year, Matthews added a stat - the percentage of students that pass at least one AP. Big deal.</p>
<p>He could have generated a somewhat relevant stat: </p>
<p>(number of AP exams taken) X (average score of all exams) /(number of students.)</p>
<p>This stat might have some relevance, as it would begin to tease out how WELL the students did on the exams.</p>
<p>But, he doesn’t do it that way. I suspect it is because if he did, it would tilt the results too much to the northeast. As it is now, it is curious how the list is weighted to the south, and Texas.</p>
<p>The author’s answers to FAQs (which were mostly criticism) from last year:</p>
<p><a href=“http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12535985/site/newsweek/[/url]”>http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12535985/site/newsweek/</a> </p>
<p>Not very compelling answers, to say the least.</p>
<p>I “love” this q/a:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>College board high quality research? Yea, like the milk board saying milk is good for us, or …(never mind)</p>