Newsweek's Best High Schools 2010 out today

Parents Forum
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<p>by the way for the person above who was complaining that her elite school is not included, there is a list of schools that they considered “elite” and it wouldn’t be fair to compare them to the other schools in the ranking because they have no average students</p>

<p>From: [The</a> Nation’s Most Elite Public High Schools - Newsweek](<a href=“http://www.newsweek.com/2010/06/13/america-s-best-high-schools-in-a-different-class.html]The”>The Nation's Most Elite Public High Schools)</p>

<p>Bergen County Academies, Hackensack, N.J.
Biotechnology High School, Freehold, N.J.
Early College at Guilford, Greensboro, N.C.
Gatton Academy of Math and Science, Bowling Green, Ky.
High Tech High School, North Bergen, N.J., and High Technology High School, Lincroft, N.J
Hunter College High School, New York, N.Y.
Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, Aurora
International Community School, Kirkland, Wash.
Louisiana School for Math, Science & the Arts, Natchitoches, La.
Loveless Academic Magnet Program, Montgomery, Ala.
Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School for Government and International Studies, Richmond, Va.
North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, Durham
Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics, Oklahoma City
Pine View School for the Gifted, Osprey, Fla.
South Carolina Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics, Hartsville
Stuyvesant High School, New York, N.Y.
Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Fairfax County, Va.
Union County Magnet High School, Scotch Plains, N.J.
University Laboratory High School, Urbana, Ill.
Whitney High School, Cerritos, Calif.</p>

22

<p>I counted 29 PA schools on the list. Our district started requiring students in AP classes to take the test a few years ago, and it put them on it. Not sure of any real value or if it helps in any way with name recognition.</p>

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<p>We zoomed up into the top 100 this year – pretty far up in the top 100 too. We’re a school with a ton of problems and some excellent academics, but also some kids who are not making it to graduation, etc. It’s nice to be on there, but it’s a ridiculous way to measure a school and not counting the pass rate is silly. Lots of schools could persuade kids to take the test to get onto this list but how would you know if they taught the material well.</p>

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<p>My sons’ high school is on the list. It must offer sufficient APs. Coincidentally, there was a letter to the editor in my local newspaper this morning from a retiring teacher who decried the “teach to the test” mentality of schools in California.</p>

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<p>^I’m torn on standardized tests. On one hand for struggling schools, it definitely creates a sense of urgency to actually teach the kids the basic stuff that they need to learn and holds these schools accountable but for high-achieving school systems, this “teach to the test” mentality doesn’t work well.</p>

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<p>Seattle schools weren’t listed- the email was trapped in the spam filter apparently
;)</p>

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<p>Their quiz team is so good.</p>

<p>I think my school is in the same place as last year, at 65. As long as we beat out all the other schools in Ohio, I’m happy, even though the basis of the rankings is rather silly.</p>

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<p>^haha as long as you’re on top, who cares?</p>

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<p>my school is in top 100! :)</p>

30

<p>I was surprised TJHSST isn’t on the list. Then again, they are an elite asian school.</p>

31

<p>^^^see discussion upthread. TJ is never on this list, as it is entirely selective admissions. </p>

<p>That doesn’t even begin to cover the specialized or magnet programs that are part of a larger neighborhood school, where a relatively small number of kids take a wildly disproportionate number of the total exams. Equity? Quality education for those not in the program? Not always.</p>

32

<p>I was surprised to see that they excluded from consideration every school that had an average SAT score over 1950. This excludes most selective private and parochial schools from consideration. A Dallas magnet school was once again number 1 in the ranking. While its a good school - most Dallasites would tell you its maybe only in the top 10 schools in Dallas - much less #1 in the country. That’s not to demean the accomplishments of the school - its just a matter of perspective and how you define the criteria.</p>

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<p>I’ve been told the Dallas magnets cook their numbers – something about counting tests as a whole but dividing by each school’s senior class separately so that the number per is higher.</p>

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<p>At least one of the schools on that list does acceptance by lottery only. How could they have no average students?</p>

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<p>I was about to comment to say exactly this–this is the situation at my school, and I’m sure many others. Funny how Mathews’ metric doesn’t even measure what he wants it to measure.</p>

36

<p>I wonder if there ever has been (or ever will be) a list that rates the private schools?</p>

37

<p>speaking of newsweek…</p>

<p>If you go to Newsweek.com and hit</p>

<p>up
up
down
down
left
right
left
right
b
a
Enter</p>

<p>( you will get all the news you need to know- just use arrow keys)</p>

38

<p>funny, EK… and just about as meaningful.</p>

39

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The highest-ranked high school in my area has the city’s IB program, which is about 20% of the high school’s student body. Unlike neighboring cities’ IB programs, though, admittance to this IB program is by exam (gifted testing instruments such as Otis-Lennon). So I think it’s misleading that this high school is highest on the list from my area simply because of a school-within-a-school that requires testing into it.</p>

40

<p>I don’t care for these rankings as they focus on a single factor.</p>

<p>That said, our local HS is still in the top 500, but has been falling fast in the last few years. If any good comes out of this, I hope that the school’s administrators will wake up and make some much needed changes in that school.</p>