Newsweek’s Top 1200 U.S. High Schools

Newsweek has published its list of the top 1200 U.S. High Schools for 2006. Undoubtedly many fantastic schools made the list, but the method used by the magazine to rank the schools is totally flawed, rendering the rankings practically meaningless.

Newsweek ranked the schools according to a ratio equal to the number of Advanced Placement and/or International Baccalaureate tests taken by all students at a school in 2005 divided by the number of graduating seniors.

However, student performance on the tests, (shown as E and E % - percentage of graduating seniors at a school that had at least one passing grade on one AP or IB test), was not a factor in the ranking and not reported for many of the schools listed within the top 1200.

While the # 1 ranked high school, Talented & Gifted in Dallas had 100% of its students pass at least one test, LSU Laboratory High School ranked # 205, had only 2% of its seniors actually pass one or more of the tests taken. Here in New Jersey, Montclair High School made the list at # 211, but only 20 % passed a single test. For what it’s worth, forty-two other schools in our state also made the list.

What makes a school great is not the number of dollars spent per student or the number of AP tests it administers, but how well students master the material presumably taught in their school.

If you’re interested in academic performance and actual results - student proficiency and SAT scores - review New Jersey’s school report cards.