OT Kinda: America's Top High Schools

Chance Me / Match Me
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<p>By Barbara Kantrowitz
NewsweekMay 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.</p>

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<p>That first school still exists today as English High in the Jamaica Plain section of Boston, its seventh location in 184 years, and its evolution echoes dramatic social changes in thousands of schools around the country. The initial graduates were all white males who studied literature, science, math and history. It’s now coed, and this year’s 249 seniors are mostly black and Hispanic with ancestors from 30 countries. To meet their needs, the school houses a day-care center for teen parents, a Gay-Straight Alliance, a program to help kids find summer jobs and a social club for the large numbers of students from Somalia—among dozens of other activities.</p>

<p>Where once English High was alone in providing a free secondary education, there are now 27,468 public high schools. Assessing such a diverse group is daunting. Newsweek’s Best High Schools List uses a ratio, the number of Advanced Placement (AP) and/or International Baccalaureate (IB) tests taken by all students at a school in 2004, divided by the number of graduating seniors. Although that doesn’t tell the whole story about a school, it’s one of the best measures available to compare a wide range of students’ readiness for higher-level work, which is more crucial than ever in the postindustrial age. A generation ago, a high-school diploma gave most workers all they needed to get good jobs, says Larry Rosenstock, CEO of High Tech High in San Diego. “Now a high-school degree doesn’t make it as a final, terminal degree. There’s been a push to get people to seek further education.”</p>

<p>The effort to produce a well-trained work force has to begin long before high school. “The single most important way to improve high schools is to improve elementary and junior high schools,” says education historian Diane Ravitch of New York University. “If a student arrived in ninth grade ready for instruction in math, science, history, literature and foreign languages, then no further reform is needed.” But with reform of the early grades underway for more than a decade, looking at high school now is a “natural progression,” says Tom Vander Ark, education director of the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation, which started focusing on secondary education three years ago. “It felt like a very large problem that wasn’t getting sufficient attention,” he says.</p>

<p>No one hopes for success more than the graduates of English High. Georgette Travis, class of '84 and now a staff assistant at the school, says 1,300 students in grades 9 to 12 is a strain on everyone. Budget cuts have meant losing highly regarded art and music programs, and the library desperately needs updating. The headmaster does his best, Travis says, but it’s a constant struggle. Without some help, schools like English will continue to struggle if they want to crack the top 100. </p>

<p>With Julie Scelfo and William Lee Adams </p>

<p>© 2005 Newsweek, Inc.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7723397/site/newsweek/[/url]”>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7723397/site/newsweek/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>does attending a school in the top 100 improve my chances of getting into colleges?</p>

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<p>nope… or does it? i wouldnt know</p>

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<p>If you go to one of these schools, you better have taken a lot of AP’s: the colleges will know that lots of kids are in AP classes at these high schools.</p>

<p>I think this is a really silly ranking - it is solely based on how many AP tests students are taking. There are other really fine high schools who have more stringent pre-requisites for being able to take an AP class, or who offer fewer AP’s classes (maybe because they don’t want to tailor honor classes to the AP curriculum), who are not on this list. Also - this only tells you how many tests were taken - what were the scores?!</p>

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<p>yeah…it’d be interesting to see how the rankings change if the statistic was #of ap tests passed/graduating seniors…</p>

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<p>There’s a discussion on the parents forum about this ranking - pointing out its many flaws.</p>

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<p>That list is completely stupid. We are by far the best school in the county (the school board has even said so on many occasions). We lead the county in SAT scores and acceptances to competitive schools, and yet we are ranked 107 while 4 of our rival schools who are far inferior are ranked 11, 17, 29, and 71. AP’s taken senior year has nothing to do witht he quality of the school. The school could be extremely easy, and that could be why everyone is be taking AP’s. Most of my friends who are in 3+ AP’s Junior year are only taking 1 or 2 next year. Senior year is a time to relax. I refuse to believe that a school in ALABAMA is more competetive than my school. We have a 1234 average SAT. They should make a list strictly based on SAT averages and % of kids who go to a 4-year institution.</p>

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<p>Your own school board is a great source of unbiased evaluations of your school. <em>shrug</em></p>

<p>TJHS has a 1350+ average SAT. What’s your point?</p>

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<p>Yea, we have top average SAT score in the state with a 1247, but we’re only 147th on that list…we used to be 63 in 2003:-(</p>

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<p>I do believe our average SAT score is a 1260. I forgot</p>

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<p>TJHS is also a nerdy-ass magnet. I go to an actual public school.</p>

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<p>This list is pointless. Any attempt to rank high schools – pointless. Unless you want to count how many people it sends to the T25 universities. Then that’d be even more pointless.</p>

<p>People should try to stop making a competition out of everything. Next thing you know, USNWR will have a list of the top Pre-Schools in the United States.</p>

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<p>Oh, and Tlaktan, I was referring to the county school board saying that we are the best (in the county).</p>

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<p>This is the funniest and the saddest thing I’ve come across! This tells you jack about the school. At least with the College Rankings, you get more factors involved. The High School Rankings doesn’t include information you can receive from like a school report, like the schools most people go to, etc.</p>

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<p>Let’s say I create a high school. It will have 5 people, and they will meet 2 days before the AP exams. Each of them will take 8 AP exams. Now this school will be the top high school in America.</p>

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<p>The top is 10.8 APs/IB per person…that’s ridiculous…</p>

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<p>The is ranked by how many AP or IB exams are taken. Any school could just have an influx of kids taking the tests and then be ranked 20th the following year. Big Woop</p>

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<p>the list is also inaccurate. It doesnt include high schools with competitive admission so schools like Stuyvesant, Boston Latin, Lowell…etc are denied a place on the list and not even ranked</p>

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<p>ok… i here so much about how the list is crap based on how the ranking are figured… buthere is my one and only thought: WHY RANK?? i mean does it really matter if the school is 20 or 1000? as long as you learn right? as long as your happy there, and willing to go to school everyday because you love it, instead of you MUST, (even when we love it, we still must), but these rankings, and almost all the others, are pointless to me.</p>

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<p>Funny, our school used to be in the top 4% in that ranking (supposedly…they have the magazine cover plastered in the main office), and now we’re ranked 568. But anyway, it doesn’t change the fact that I loathe my school.</p>