Top 1,000 Public High Schools

[SweetpeaAeryn]

The measure has to do with Advanced Placement tests taken and the number of graduating seniors. And seems to figure in reduced lunches.

*As though the avaiablility of AP classes makes a school necessarily better and lower income makes it automatically worse.*

I checked all the IL schools, and I knew all but like two. They were all very large schools.

We all know that class size and student: teacher ratio mean nothing. (read as sarcastic)

And what about the amount of technology in the school and the ways that it is used?

There are a lot of factors that were ignored in this that have a lot more to do with the success of a school. I do not think that any of the factors should be about the student population (income). It should be teachers and facilities.

But that's just my opinion as a soon-to-be teacher.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7723397/site/newsweek/

[Ka D'Argo]

sweeet my school is #35!!!! st.pete high whoo
________
Top 10 vaporizers (http://vaporizer.org/reviews/)

[JadedLegend3]

Is there an easy way to sort that list, or do you just have to look through all of them?

[SweetpeaAeryn]

I think you pretty much just have to look through them... I used ctrl + F to help.

[Selena]

Man alive there is not a single school in Tennessee listed until the 300's that is really sad.
You would think that the top 50 would be 1 school in each state. It seems that if you want your kids to have a quality education you had better not bring them to Tennessee.

[La Bomba]

27 | Wilson Magnet* | Rochester | N.Y. | 3.895 | 63

This is one of our city High schools at #27. I'd love to know the details on how this is determined.
Out of the 1400 or so enrolled in that school, I think the number of graduates is around 65. Somehow, they got around the fact that most of the seniors enrolled don't graduate at all.
My guess is that they drop the students from their roster before this percentage is determined.
I'm sure a 60 - 70% dropout rate is not figured in. :rolleyes:

[Selena]

27 | Wilson Magnet* | Rochester | N.Y. | 3.895 | 63

This is one of our city High schools at #27.... I think the number of graduates is around 65.... :rolleyes:

Is that the number of students that graduate or their ages at graduation?

[La Bomba]

Is that the number of students that graduate or their ages at graduation?
:rollin:

Both.

[BrowderChick]

I didnt even bother to look for mine. :dunno:

[BrowderChick]

270 | Bouton | Voorheesville | N.Y. | 2.046 | 2.5

653 | Bethlehem Central | Delmar | N.Y. | 1.388 | 2

775 | Niskayuna | Schenectady | N.Y. | 1.260 | 2

These are the only ones from my immediate area. If I hadnt moved to where I am now, Cami would have been going to Bethlehem Central.

[TalynLives]

And what about the amount of technology in the school and the ways that it is used?

Technology's not such a great thing. Computers have been shown to adversely affect kids' concentration, whether they be playing games or "researching" stuff on the Internet (A lazy alternative to putting effort into educating them imo).

[SweetpeaAeryn]

Technology's not such a great thing. Computers have been shown to adversely affect kids' concentration, whether they be playing games or "researching" stuff on the Internet (A lazy alternative to putting effort into educating them imo).

Have you ever read Cynthia's Selfe's book "Technology and Literacy in the Twenty-First Century: The Importance of Paying Attention"?

I don't have time now, but I will argue this some later. :)

[MrX]

Mine was somewhere around 660. I was surprised that my sister's didn't even make the list.

[RustySlinky]

Looking at the list, it seems that Northern California has two schools in the Top-100:

#57 | Monta Vista High | Cupertino | Calif. | 3.236 | 2
The inside scoop with this school is that close to half of the students are Asian-American. :listen: It's rumored that what's happening here is of non-asian parents yanking their children out of such schools because (1) the schools are too competitive academically because "many asians don't do much else except study" and (2) caucasian parents feel that their children are being deprived of the "normal American high-school experience" because asians study more, and don't participate as much in school sports, homecoming-activities, social activities, and school-spirit parties, etc.


#70 | Gunn High | Palo Alto | Calif. | 3.052 | 3.2
This area is filled with well-to-do families whose parents hold jobs in top Silicon-Valley high-tech companies. Lots of monetary support here, which is not usually the case for the generic California school. :pi: The schools next door in neighboring East Palo Alto have high numbers of afro-americans and latinos, are cash-strapped and not doing anywhere as well. Gunn High School made local news last March when the school disbanded its after-school robotics-competition team, after the competition got so fierce that students were making death-threats, etc. over each others' vehicle drive-train designs.

[Spedoinkel]

The first highschool I went to, where my lil sis is just now graduating, and I thought was a crappy school is #948. The secound school I went to, where I spent most of my Highschool, and thought was an awesome school, isn't listed.

[grinner]

A D from the state, but on magazine's honor roll

A D from the state, but Hillsborough High is named the 10th best school in the country by Newsweek.


Hillsborough High School in Tampa earned a D grade from the state last year. And under federal standards, it fell far short.

But on Monday, Newsweek magazine named it the 10th best high school in the country.

In the country.

Hillsborough was one of 16 Florida high schools to rank in the top 100, including five from the Tampa Bay area.

"We knew we were good," principal William Orr said. "But we didn't know how good."

The Newsweek list is based on a single factor: the number of Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate tests taken by all students at a school, divided by the number of graduating seniors. The students don't have to do well on the tests either. It matters only that they take them.

Test scores? No.

Graduation rates? Nope.

Closing the achievement gap between whites and minorities? Forget it.

Critics say the formula is simplistic. For example, a school's rank can actually improve if it has a high dropout rate.

Two other Hillsborough schools made the list, King High (No. 36) and Plant High (No. 69), as well as two Pinellas schools, St. Petersburg High (No. 35) and Palm Harbor University High (No. 83).

Jacksonville's Stanton College Preparatory School finished tops in Florida and No. 3 overall.

Newsweek stands behind the rankings, saying it rewards high schools that push average students to take rigorous courses.

Much like the U.S. News & World Report college rankings, the Newsweek high school list has been steadily growing in popularity.

Now, principals and superintendents are doing what university presidents have done for years: griping about how unfair the formula is when they tumble down the list, and sending out glowing news releases when they move up.

Monday's list is more proof Hillsborough schools are on their way to "providing the best education in the nation," superintendent Earl Lennard said in a written statement Monday.

State and federal grading systems offer a less rosy view.

Under Florida's system, only five of the 16 Florida schools on the Newsweek list earned A's last year.

Only three met federal standards.

The state system factors in improvement among struggling students, while the federal system rates a school based on how well subgroups do, including low-income students, minorities and children with disabilities.

That's not to say the Newsweek system isn't without merit.

Hillsborough High has beefed up the number of AP test takers in recent years by identifying students who it thought could benefit from a more rigorous curriculum. And at Plant High, students took a combined 1,700 AP tests this year, about 300 more than last year, said principal Eric Bergholm.

"I think that's worthy of recognition," he said.

--Ron Matus can be reached at 727 893-8873 or matus@sptimes.com link (http://www.sptimes.com/2005/05/10/Hillsborough/A_D_from_the_state__b.shtml)

[RustySlinky]

27 | Wilson Magnet* | Rochester | N.Y. | 3.895 | 63

This is one of our city High schools at #27. I'd love to know the details on how this is determined.
Out of the 1400 or so enrolled in that school, I think the number of graduates is around 65. Somehow, they got around the fact that most of the seniors enrolled don't graduate at all.
My guess is that they drop the students from their roster before this percentage is determined.
I'm sure a 60 - 70% dropout rate is not figured in. :rolleyes:The conclusion seems to make sense. Scores are calculated as follows:

Numerator = Total Number of AP + IB Tests taken by the entire student body
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Denominator = Total Number of Graduating Seniors for that same academic year

:pi:Therefore, If a ba-zillion students take AP tests that year, but only a handful graduate, that High School would still get an excellent score.

:pi: It looks like the school lunch numbers are not used in the calculation. They're provided as supplemental info.

1. How does the Challenge Index work?

I take the total number of AP or IB tests given at a school in May, and divide by the number of seniors graduating in June. All schools that NEWSWEEK researchers Dan Berrett and Dan Brillman and I found that achieved a ratio of at least 1.000, meaning they had as many tests in 2004 as they had graduates, are on the list on the NEWSWEEK Web site, and the top 100 schools on that list are named in the magazine . . .

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7760504/site/newsweek

[LiLOrion]

No schools from Philly. Not surprising. Kinda sad. Although I feel I'm relatively intelligent anyways.

[SweetpeaAeryn]

Alright, I have a moment now to talk about tech in schools.

In the book I just read, and I mentioned eariler, Selfe points out that although tech is a priority for education, that students in middle and upper-middle class schools use technology more, have more access, and are allowed in schools to do more meaningful and preparatory assignments. However, the opposite is true for lower class schools. Even though initiatives have stated a goal of technology in the classroom to be that EVERYONE has the equal ability to get "high tech, high paying" jobs.

The problem is that even when there is tech in the classroom it is not always used well. This is partly because teachers are given little to no training in how to use tech in the classroom. I am in one of the few states that requires students to have a "Tech for Teachers" course before they are certified to teach. And let me tell you- I did not learn anything that I could not have taught myself by simply opening a Microsoft Office program and playing with it a while. I learned how to make newsletters, web pages, and things like that... but not how to teach my students how to use technology in meaningful ways.

Since this country values technology so much and since it is required for more and more jobs every day, technology is vital in every classroom. But we need to be very careful how we use it and what we teach our students about it.

~My opinion from what I've been reading lately and what I have observed in my own training to become a teacher.

[kymom5613]

Tw of our local schools made the top 300...DuPont Manual was at 223, and Eastern was "the" 300... What I want to see is the list for the private schools... Want to see where the schools I'm sending my children list...

[Jen10122]

This is not good. Man, NYC has has alot of bad schools. Here are a few that made the list.

476 | Long Island City | Long Island City | N.Y. | 1.598 | 85
575 | High School for Environmental Studies | New York City | N.Y. | 1.468 | 45.6
650 | Midwood | Brooklyn | N.Y. | 1.390 | 36.1
912 | Edward R. Murrow|Brooklyn|N.Y. | 1.130 | 23.6
975 | High School of Telecommunication Arts & Tech | Brooklyn | N.Y. | 1.070 | 61.7
1014 | Forest Hills | Forest Hills | N.Y. | 1.027 | 20.6


These are all the high schools that are list for my city. I have many more high schools in this city at aren't on the list. The high school I went to isn't on the list.

[RustySlinky]

Alright, I have a moment now to talk about tech in schools.

In the book I just read, and I mentioned eariler, Selfe points out that although tech is a priority for education, that students in middle and upper-middle class schools use technology more, have more access, and are allowed in schools to do more meaningful and preparatory assignments. However, the opposite is true for lower class schools. Even though initiatives have stated a goal of technology in the classroom to be that EVERYONE has the equal ability to get "high tech, high paying" jobs.

The problem is that even when there is tech in the classroom it is not always used well. This is partly because teachers are given little to no training in how to use tech in the classroom. I am in one of the few states that requires students to have a "Tech for Teachers" course before they are certified to teach. And let me tell you- I did not learn anything that I could not have taught myself by simply opening a Microsoft Office program and playing with it a while. I learned how to make newsletters, web pages, and things like that... but not how to teach my students how to use technology in meaningful ways.

Since this country values technology so much and since it is required for more and more jobs every day, technology is vital in every classroom. But we need to be very careful how we use it and what we teach our students about it.

~My opinion from what I've been reading lately and what I have observed in my own training to become a teacher.Would it be fair to say that because of the need for computers, it takes more money for schools nowadays than it did, maybe 30 years ago? All that was needed then in the classroom were books, desks, a chalkboard, pencils, paper and maybe a film projector or TV. Now, every student's gotta have a computer or two (if the first one breaks) just to keep up with the rest of the world. Gotta wire up the classrooms for internet access, then comes all the software on top of it. If this is the case, then taxpayers have to shift their mindset :headbang: into forking-over more tax-money-per-student into public schools to cover the added technology.

Unless the added expense of computers can like, replace the need for textbooks. In this case we would be replacing one cost :book: with another. :comp:

Or if the addition of computers can help students learn more quickly. For example, students who learn faster than others can click their computers faster, instead of having the whole class keep the same pace via teacher lecture.
:zzz::zzz::zzz::zzz::zzz::zzz::zzz::zzz::zzz:

Also, concepts which are difficult to visualize by reading a book, like the gravitational constant (physics, what happens if you change the mass, etc.), or graphing mathematical equations (y=mx+b, and what happens to "y" and "x" if you vary "m" and "b") are better taught using computer animations, because students can change the variables and instantaneously see how it affects the outcome.
:reach:

[SweetpeaAeryn]

Rusty, I think that the funding is a really interesting thing to look at. According to Selfe, it seems like almost a conspiracy theory where businesses and the government, in order to keep the US on top, chose that tech would be our boon. And so, in order to keep tech in high demand, we train our students in schools to use computers and other tech.

But the problem is, as I stated earlier, that although the "intent" was that all students would have equal access and experience with tech in order to be able to vie (sp?) for the same jobs. Which is not happening (for the most part).

[arthurfrdent]

Man, what a cop out on newsweeks part. percentage of AP/graduates? That's got to be the stupidest thing I've ever heard. And the scores are skewed by having a low grad rate relative to the number who take the tests...

you would think that SOMEONE would have thought to put overall grad rate in as a limiting factor... so if you only graduate 10% of a class, that's factored in... OI, Stupid!

rankings and rates and stuff, are very often BULL anyway, as no-one wants to be on the hook for loosing a student... there are only lies, damn lies and statistics after all...

[DRD 1812]

Can't look for mine due to the fact I've never been in a public school my whole life.