America's Top High Schools

[missypie]

Can they release the IQs of all their students? I know Dallas is a big city, but having an entire high school of truly gifted kids is rare.

I never understand why the Dallas TAG school is included if they exclude magnets. It's come out as no. 1 for about three years in a row. The entire high school (which shares a campus with 3 or 4 other magnets) has an enrollment of about 168, out of a school district high school population of around 38,000. That means that this is the top 0.4% of the distict's high school population. I bet any of our high schools would appear to be stellar if you went by the test scores of the top 0.4% of the kids in the school!

 

[punkin]

It really is a silly list. In this area there are a few high schools which are considered good and pretty equivalent in the type of education they offer. People are crazy about getting their kids into one of those schools. On that list they are no where near each other in rankings. It seems arbitrary.

 

[allison443]

I never understand why the Dallas TAG school is included if they exclude magnets. It's come out as no. 1 for about three years in a row. The entire high school (which shares a campus with 3 or 4 other magnets) has an enrollment of about 168, out of a school district high school population of around 38,000. That means that this is the top 0.4% of the distict's high school population. I bet any of our high schools would appear to be stellar if you went by the test scores of the top 0.4% of the kids in the school!

Buried in the FAQ I found the explanation. The list excludes magnet/charters if their ACT/SAT scores are what the study calls "too high":

. Why don't I see on the NEWSWEEK list famous public high schools like Stuyvesant in New York City or Thomas Jefferson in Fairfax County, Va., or the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy in Aurora, Ill., or Whitney High in Cerritos, Calif.?
We do not include any magnet or charter high school that draws such a high concentration of top students that its average SAT or ACT score significantly exceeds the highest average for any normal-enrollment school in the country. This year that meant such schools had to have an average SAT score below 1,975 or an average ACT score below 29 to be included on the list.

The schools you name are terrific places with some of the highest average test scores in the country, but it would be deceptive for us to put them on this list. The Challenge Index is designed to honor schools that have done the best job in persuading average students to take college-level courses and tests. It does not work with schools that have no, or almost no, average students. The idea is to create a list that measures how good schools are in challenging all students and not just how high their students' test scores are. The high-performing schools we have excluded from the list all have great teachers, but research indicates that high SAT and ACT averages are much more an indication of the affluence of the students' parents.

Using average SAT or ACT scores is a change from the previous system we used, which excluded schools that admitted more than half of their student based on grades and test scores. That system penalized some inner-city magnet schools that had high Challenge Index ratings but whose average SAT or ACT scores were below those of some normal-enrollment suburban schools, so we switched to a system that we consider fairer and clearer.

We do, however, acknowledge on our Public Elites list the schools that did not make the list because their average SAT or ACT scores were too high. This year there are 21 of them.

 

[golfgal]

I never understand why the Dallas TAG school is included if they exclude magnets. It's come out as no. 1 for about three years in a row. The entire high school (which shares a campus with 3 or 4 other magnets) has an enrollment of about 168, out of a school district high school population of around 38,000. That means that this is the top 0.4% of the distict's high school population. I bet any of our high schools would appear to be stellar if you went by the test scores of the top 0.4% of the kids in the school!

We would be tied for #1 at our high school if this is all they reported for our school too . I suspect almost every descent high school would tie for #1 if they only reported the top .4%.

 

[missypie]

We would be tied for #1 at our high school if this is all they reported for our school too . I suspect almost every descent high school would tie for #1 if they only reported the top .4%.

Right - in our suburban HS (#170 if I'm recalling correctly) that would be the top 9 kids in the school....my, my, the stats would be awesome!

I'm not criticizing the Dallas TAG...it's a great place and is very diverse, both racially and economically. It's just silly to compare a highly selective tiny school to a large one that has to accept all comers.

 

[goofy!]

One of the Charter Schools in our district holds the #35 spot. The High School that everybody tries to open enroll into because of its high academic standards holds the 201st spot.

There is no way Peak to Peak (or Peak to Puke as the kids lovingly call it) is that much better than what the other high schools offer. Don't get me wrong, it is an outstanding school and has to hold a lottery each year for attendance. But the other high schools offer a similar, if not more, strenuos academic program. It is just that the other high schools scores are more watered down because of the diverse demographics of the school.

To me, that just proves the list needs to be taken with a grain of salt. A big grain!

 

[princessmom29]

This "study" is totally pointless. It in no way takes into account student performace, only participation in AP exams. The Alabama school that is #2 is the wealthiest school in Alabama, based on income of its parents, but NOT #1 in ACT/SAT!!

 

[HeatherC]

Our high school was listed on this list several years back and people were all excited about it. But....then our superintendent let out the fact that schools actually seek this out and "apply". I think they are then ranked out of the applicants and ranked from there based on income, test score, etc.. So....the way I took it is that if a school doesn't "apply" so to speak they could be the best school in the world but they wouldn't be ranked. Not sure if this is true or not, just what we learned after the fact.

I now take these rankings in stride.

 

[allison443]

Also not factored into this "study" is whether the students have to pay to take their own AP exams, or if the school pays for them. I think it's common sense that if the school is paying for the exams it's a lot more likely to get a high test-taking rate and thus rank high in this "study".

Each AP exam costs $86.

 

[Colleen27]

Also not factored into this "study" is whether the students have to pay to take their own AP exams, or if the school pays for them. I think it's common sense that if the school is paying for the exams it's a lot more likely to get a high test-taking rate and thus rank high in this "study".

Each AP exam costs $86.

Yep, I'm sure that's a factor for why the school we plan to send our daughter to isn't ranked even though by other measures it is among the best in the state. The school doesn't mandate nor pay for AP exams, which tends to limit kids from our working-class area to taking just a couple AP classes in their strong subjects and only testing in subjects they're confident of passing.

 

[brerrabbit]

I am no expert on quality of HS's but am from Texas, and the Houston area and as I looked at the list knew this thing was wrong. See the linked article for the type of Houston schools that are on it.

http://www.hcnonline.com/articles/2...y_examiner/news/wu_hisd_newsweek_rankings.txt

Memorial is an affluent school and good academically with it's most notable graduate being Michael Dell of Dell Computers. Bellaire is a HISD school and is a magnate school for languages and always rates well. It's famous alumni include Dennis and Randy Quaid, although that does not say anything about their academics.

Read the articla and you will know all you need to about the rankings.

 

[thetallone]

I'm pretty none of my local highschools are in there. So far I don't see any of my states highschools. The most highschools I saw were FL

 

[allison443]

I'm pretty none of my local highschools are in there. So far I don't see any of my states highschools. The most highschools I saw were FL

If you click the column heading "state" it sorts the results by state. After I finally figured that out it helped a lot.

 

[castleview]

If you click the column heading "state" it sorts the results by state. After I finally figured that out it helped a lot.

I just checked it out by state and now I'm sure this list is an absolute joke. Connecticut IB Academy and Conard are that much better than Staples, Wilton, and Greenwhich? I don't think so.

 

[ladycollector]

Wow, my high school (charter that allowed us to leave with both a highschool diploma and AA Degree) wasn't even on there yet the high school down the road was something like 111. Kinda misleading.

 

[Sparx]

Tennessee had one ranked 41 and one ranked 54! I didn't think we'd make it into the top 100, let alone the top 50.