<p>Our school is always on the list (former #1). I don’t put much stock in it other than as a source of pride. However, the results are there. Our kids take many AP’s because they’re expected to. As early as 6th grade, the school sets the bar very high and the kids know that excellence is expected. As they get to high school, most students are ready for AP courses. In 10th grade, about half the kids start with AP Euro. They quickly get used to the workload. In 11th, most kids are taking one or two, and the more advanced students are taking at least 3. It progresses further as seniors. By the time they graduate, they are essentially used to a college workload.</p>
<p>The results are there. The most selective colleges love our school because they know the kids are ready for college. This year we have 346 seniors. The acceptance list includes:</p>
<p>Brown 3
Caltech 1
Columbia 10
Cornell 34 (10% of the class!)
Dartmouth 6
Duke 11
Harvard 2
Johns Hopkins 8
MIT 5
NYU 38
Princeton 3
Penn 8
Yale 4</p>
<p>And the rising tide lifts all boats. Even the “bottom” students end up being pretty solid and attractive college candidates. 100% go on to college. This is not a magnet, just a regular public school. No entrance exam or requirement of any kind–just have to live here.</p>
<p>Our “neighborhood” school is only 7 years old and this year made the low 200’s. That is why so many of our kids this year are finally being accepted into the elite universities. It took time and hard work, but it is a great school and finally being recognized.</p>
<p>Chardo, same with my school. We are ranked 260th on the Newsweek rankings but I was ranked in the bottom half of my school and I was accepted at Clemson. We have 6 kids going to Harvard, 4 to Duke, 8 to Brown, 4 to Cornell, etc… Being the best open enrollment high school in Massachusetts according to US News and Newsweek probably makes college admissions officers look more favorably on us.</p>
<p>Our school used to be on the list, but hasn’t been there for the last couple of years. We still offer just as many AP courses, we still require everyone to take the exams.</p>
<p>^^^Greta, It says on Newsweek’s site that the school in Corbett they are talking about is a charter school (which may explain its high ranking), not an open enrollment high school.</p>
<p>I’ve only talked to one or two college admissions officers about this list. They hate it. It’s hard for them to say so publicly because the College Board is so powerful. They really dislike the proliferation of AP courses and they really DO differentiate between AP BC Calculus or AP Foreign Language and AP environmental science. Again, it’s not that they don’t think these courses aren’t valuable, especially for the kid who has a genuine interest in one of these fields. But they do see kids who fill up on these courses in order to boost their gpa’s as they are calculated by their high schools and take these courses INSTEAD of the more difficult “basic” courses like physics or a fourth year of a foreign language or a second foreign language. </p>
<p>I do think taking AP tests is a valuable exercise for kids from mediocre high schools because at too many US high schools students do very little writing outside of English class. Since many colleges give most exams in an essay format, you’re at a disadvantage if the only tests you’ve faced in high school are mulitple choice and/or short answer.</p>
<p>Bottom line: I agree iwth e-kitty that colleges aren’t impressed by the fact a high school is on this list. They ARE impressed if the high school offers rigorous course work.</p>
<p>Two of our districts top high schools didn’t return the questionnaire and as they have been on the list in the past- I am wondering/hoping, if they perhaps are taking a stand against ranking high schools- as Reed College and others have done with Us News.</p>
<p>I know there are many, many schools in the country and for a school that is just beginning to try and offer more challenging courses- AP may be seen as a way to do that.</p>
<p>But I don’t like the perception that AP is necessarily “better”, I don’t like the pressure to take AP in some schools ( like in Bellevue- students are encouraged to take more than they feel comfortable with), and I don’t like the fees for testing- it shuts lots of students out.
( and why not rank on how many take SAT tests instead? College Board would still get their publicity/money- just not as much $$$- it’s a test that you need to take to get accepted to most colleges, unlike AP - * older D didn’t take any AP classes or tests- not that Reed uses that for placement anyway*, and it would place more attention on schools that try and ready students for college- but not expect everyone to be at college level in high school.) The football coach @ Garfield for example, requires not only a certain GPA to participate- but everyone has to take the SAT.</p>
<p>In an effort to reach kids who aren’t traditionally successful across the board academically- her school allowed D2 to take regular or even remedial courses at the same time she was taking AP. This worked for her- but some schools don’t allow that- reasoning that you have to be * at least* at grade level in all areas before you can go ahead.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I think, they lose some students that way, because if you are ready for more demanding work, spending twice as much time on a subject that is difficult for you, instead of being allowed to be challenged in areas where you have greater understanding, is a way to turn kids off to learning.</p>
<p>Particularly when the reason why it was difficult, when the prior instruction/curriculum was just not working - as for instance the math program in our public schools- seems a poor reason to penalize the students.</p>
<p>My kids’ school has been on this list, and is again ranked as one of the top schools in our state according to Newsweek’s system. I think it is deplorable to rank schools in this fashion, and our administration’s embracing of this ranking has had a negative impact on the quality of education offered, in my opinion. The kids are coerced to take the AP classes by the greater weight accorded to grades in those classes, and to take the tests because even greater weight is accorded to grades in AP classes where the student sat for the exam. Not to mention the cost of the tests. And it keeps kids from taking unweighted classes that explore material deeply and encourage analysis and writing–everything is reduced to a formula to maximize the score on the AP exam. I just hate it. Shame on you, Newsweek. This is no way to rate education, but it sure is quantifiable. Schools who care about this and play the game can easily boost their rankings–it has been consistently done by the mediocre high school my kids attend, to the detriment rather than the enhancement of the students’ educational experience.</p>
<p>Judging from that with which I am familiar (Westchester County, NY) the list is more than a little bit off.</p>
<p>At a glace 22 of Westchester County’s 44 public schools are on the list. And while that in and of itself may not be out of line, some of the schools included in and the ordinal ranking of those 22 is so off as to be amusing.</p>
<p>Number 3 in county (99 in country) - Harrison
Number 5 in county (132 in country) - Yonkers
Number 7 in county (145 in country) - Horace Greeley
Number 17 in county (569 in country) - Byram Hills
Number 19 in county (719 in country) - Peekskill
Number 22 in county (1011 in country) - Scarsdale</p>
<p>Right</p>
<p>Scarsdale is and has always been the best school in the county followed by Horace Greeley at number two. This has not changed in 4 decades.</p>
<p>After that you’ve got Byram and Bronxville and Irvington and Edgemont and John Jay and Blind Brook and Rye and Briarcliff. Mix em up if you wish. Maybe add a couple of others. But that’s basically it for the top 10-12 schools in the county.</p>
<p>Greeley can’t be 7th in the county. Byram can’t be 17th. Harrison is not in the top ten.</p>
<p>Yonkers is closer to the bottom 5 in the county than it is to the top five.</p>
<p>Peekskill doesn’t belong anywhere on this list.</p>
<p>Finally, to have Scarsdale ranked dead last of the 22 Westchester schools listed is not only absurd, but in and of itself sufficient evidence to deem as fatally flawed whatever the methodology was that led to this result.</p>
<p>Maybe the point of the list is there is no such thing as an absolute “best” school in a region but a collection of many great schools? I dunno. They should factor in what percentage of kids get 4’s and 5’s on the AP exams but that’ll probably take a lot of work.</p>
<p>Of the 4 schools in our area on the list, one is a fantastic, nationally known college prep school (have to test to get into it), and the other 3 are…good to very good.</p>
<p>But the school that, for example, always wins the league in Quiz Team and has the most National Merit Finalists in the whole STATE…is not on the list. Go figure.</p>
<p>I live in Florida and our state now includes AP and IB tests given at high schools in the calculation of schools’ annual grades. The grades used to rely mostly on FCAT scores, so even if AP and IB classes are pushed too much, I am happy that school grades will factor in the stronger students and not just the struggling ones.</p>
<p>Really? What an elitist POV. Read the FAQs on Newsweek’s list. They cover this point. Private schools REFUSE to provide data to Newsweek or U.S. News & World Report for their lists.</p>
<p>Ever see the movie ‘Stand and Deliver’? This was the basis for the ‘Challenge Index’ (i.e. Newsweek’s list). Garfield HS in East LA was able to have incredible results with their AP program at a very challenging school. Convential wisdom said that THOSE kids can’t handle AP. Jay Mathews wanted to reward schools that were challening the greatest # of their population thorugh AP courses. </p>
<p>The list has created an incentive for other schools to open up their AP classes to more kids (something that is proven to greatly increase students’ chances of college graduation, even if they get a ‘2’ on the AP exam). What part of all of this are you against exactly?</p>
<p>Or is it just that you have some petty jealousy that your local school was recognized and your kids’ school wasn’t. How dare Newsweek recognize “that” school, with “those” type of kids? </p>
<p>I’m a counselor and I can tell you first hand that kids who take AP classes at your local HS are at a comparative advantage when it comes to applying to highly selective colleges. I suggest you read the book ‘Harvard Schmarvard’ by Jay Mathews. (He’s a Harvard grad, BTW.) And lose the elitism while you’re at it. Colleges don’t care what high school a kid went to. Really, they don’t.</p>
<p>I agree that it’s good for a school to encourage all students to attempt AP courses. </p>
<p>I am not convinced that getting a 1 or 2 on the exam proves they are capable of college work. In other words, just having taken the course and not learned the material. Maybe it demonstrates to them what they need to work towards?</p>