The annual rankings of the “best” high schools was recently published by US News & World Report. Pay no attention. They are meaningless. They make no distinction between highly selective schools and open enrollment schools. If a high school has an entry exam or gets rid of kids with low test scores, it is ranked higher than high schools that accept everyone and do a great job.
The magazine should be embarrassed to publish such a misleading ranking. There is no ranking that would be meaningful. It is sort of like listing “the best families” in America. No, you won’t be admitted.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Diane, I could not agree more. To call the Dallas School for the Takented and Gifted the No. 1 high school in America with there “private school gifted entrance mentality” is tantamount to blatant discrimination and willfully intent to mislead readers.
I will add this. U.S. New’s No. 1 high school does not have a No. 1 accessible website and I have filed a federal OCR complaint! I have now filed over 350 across the U.S. and including in all 50 states!
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As is true in so many instances, this sort of labeling, sorting and stack ranking has a veneer of scientific objectivity that cuts off discussion before it even begins:
“Best” at what? “Best” for whom?
And even if the “best” are truly the “best” in some very narrowly defined sense: are there opportunity costs for the overwhelming majority of those not in the “best” in order to ensure the #1s their place at the top of the list? In other words, does the “best” for a very very few come at the cost of ensuring that the vast majority are in the “worst”?
Perhaps USN&WR is the “best” at spouting nonsense.
Go figure…
😎
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agreed.
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US News is looking for the best of the best of the best, sir
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When will we stop ranking schools like sports teams?
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Embarrassing is right. But it is always interesting to see who takes great stock in these rankings. Sort of like hearing someone say they plan on voting for Donald Trump.
“Things that make you go hmmm…”
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P.S.
And, the U.S. News “gold”, “silver” and “bronze” metal shtick is ridiculous. I suggest some additional awards with the corresponding materials:
PYRITE = For the schools who rely on misleading test results
TEFLON = For all those charters that, for some people, can do no wrong
NAUGAHYDE w/ PLEATHER CLUSTERS = For the phoniest schools
GRIT = Meanest schools that no child should be forced to attend
ARNE DUNCONIUM= Gemstone similar in molecular structure to Cubic Zirconium
Goes to districts who most zealously “raced to the top”.
CARDBOARD = Schools most willing to be ripped off by shoddy, overpriced
construction schemes
SILICON = Schools damaged the most by pompous tech billionaires
COPPER = Made from melted pennies raised at school-saving bake sales;
Given to the 1% top wealthiest districts
DACRON = Goes to the schools that have recycled the worst ideas -yet again
LEAD = Schools tragically mismanaged…. criminal indictments pending
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Medal…..
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The rankings you suggest are brilliant.
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I wish we some org that looked at solid public schools and celebrated them. It’s a shame. I read again and again about Breakthrough Schools in Cleveland as the universal ed reform example of a solid charter school and there’s never anything on (individual) Cleveland public schools that do a solid job, year after year, no matter how many fads and “reforms” and challenges are thrown at them.
It’s just blatantly biased. I once read a Duncan speech where the only public school he could find in the whole country that he complimented was a public school that was literally destroyed by a tornado. I laughed out loud. He’s so far in the bubble he doesn’t even hear how ridiculous that is. ONE public school, and one that was destroyed! I mean, for God’s sake. Stick your head out of that ed reform bubble you live in, buddy.
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VERY well said!
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Like standardized tests these rankings correlate to wealth and selection. In the Chicago area, the highest ranked schools are either selective enrollment magnet schools in Chicago or wealthy subuIrban High Schools.
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The same can be said for the “Great Schools” website. Their ratings generally reflect the demographics of an area, rather than shedding any light on what is a great school. This is a real estate marketing tool designed to funnel affluent people into mostly white areas.
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In my worst moments I sometimes think a larger and larger share of the US economy is based on scams and rip-offs.
I might just be older so I see more of them, but boy we seem to have a real thriving BS industry. I can’t keep up. You worry that so much creative energy and investment is going toward selling stuff that has no value. Surely that could go elsewhere.
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Technology allows us to spread the BS globally.
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Best? What is your definition of “best” as a superlative descriptor. If best took into account all the critical variables, including socio-economic diversity, the rankings would be dramatically different. Best might be the school that takes a kid from a minus (negative) learning experience to a positive one without concern for grades, test scores and college admissions. Best might be the school that succeeds in the face of overwhelming odds against it. Best might be the school that serves their kids with optimum learning experiences designed for each individual student. Best will vary according to a student’s needs, the quality of teaching, the characteristics of culture and environment and a host of other things that US News and others neither understand nor appreciate. Have a look at Ted Dintersmith’s and Tony Wagner’s “Most Likely to Succeed.”
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“. . . a minus (negative) learning experience . . .”
Please explain what you mean by that. TIA, Duane
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Looking at definitions as to what is “best” is the first step of a critical thinker; then trying to find credible data that reflect those definitions remains the challenge. Thanks for searching for variables that contribute to quality schools.
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“They make no distinction between highly selective schools and open enrollment schools. If a high school has an entry exam or gets rid of kids with low test scores, it is ranked higher than high schools that accept everyone and do a great job.”
That’s because they’re about “excellence!” and not the sad “mediocrity” of the masses, Diane.
It’s like how Arne Duncan promotes the ridiculous (and innumerate) notion that a school that starts with 100 kids in 9th grade and ends with 60 “graduates 100%”
Do they not teach basic math at Harvard? My local public high school could graduate “100%” too if we got rid of the bottom 20%.
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The “rankings” for colleges and universities are just as dumb and meaningless.
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High school students take AP® and IB exams to earn college credit and demonstrate success at college-level course work. U.S. News calculated a College Readiness Index based on [AP] exam participation rates and percentages of students passing at least one exam. The index determined which types of medals (gold, silver or bronze) were awarded to top-performing schools.
WHAT? AP exams prove “college readiness”?
You mean we never needed Common Core standards and testing?
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The technical report shows how this rating process works.
The ratings are produced by Research Triangle International (North Carolina) based on a methodology developed by the American Institutes for Research (AIR). AIR had the contract for this rating system and RTI borrowed from that work (acknowledged in the technical report). Both are non-profit holding companies for researchers. They spend a lot of time writing grants. The ratings are based on HS gradation rates, state test scores with cut scores set a high level. Also in the equation are scores associated with AP courses and International Baccalaureate tests.
Entire states are excluded for lack of data. These test-score ratings would be harder to construct if more states made it harder for this blatant commercialization of data gathered at public expense.
If you are a lover of data, the technical report is filled with charts and graphs.
I am trying to determine who is funding this research. The IRS 990 for Mort Zuckerman Foundation (he owns the magazine) does not appear to be the source of funds. http://www.usnews.com/pubfiles/best-high-schools-technical-appendix.pdf
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I agree that they are meaningless, but at the same time, we should all agree that this is very much an American idea and compulsion. Granted, I have a small personal frame of reference that encompasses the U.S. and western Europe, but Americans are the only culture of which I am aware that has to try to rank everything. We invented the concept of “Halls of Fame,” we obsess about top ten lists, and we too often have to arbitrarily and subjectively declare something as being the “best.” As a (very) trivial example, consider how, when a great sports figure is universally acknowledged, idiotic debates clutter media outlets if that person is better than someone of a different age. Is LeBron better than Jordan? Is Jeter better than Gehrig? Could the championship team of this year beaten the dynasty team of decades past? It can be extrapolated to many things: Is Jobs more influential than Newton? Is there a # 1 restaurant? A # 1 hospital? And so on. I am not aware of such an obsessive need to rank everything in other cultures. They are more likely to celebrate accomplishment for it’s own sake. The U.S. News rankings of whatever they choose to highlight is just another inane American cultural idea that has its roots in the silliness in the concept of American exceptionalism–whatever the hell that means.
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“American exceptionalism–whatever the hell that means.”
It means that America’s shit don’t stink.
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It means we except ourselves from everyone else’s rules — even Nature’s when we deny global warming and sea level rise.
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The “best” high school in California is a few miles from me. It is highly selective and has a student population that has affluent, highly educated parents. A more honest description of this schools, and others like it, would be “The most selective public schools in America.”
I am not sour grapes as my son went to a similar school. That said, the dishonesty grates on me.
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I also wonder how the opt out movement effects these rankings. In Washington state a number of schools had opt out percentages in the 90% plus range….
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Totally agree !! Never made sense . Lost a student this week in Delaware where I taught . Very sad week ..so where is the money going? Not to safety in schools !!
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I think someone should publish a “best news magazines” ranking.
I’m sure that by any reasonable standard (accuracy, lack of bias, etc) US News would consistently come out near the bottom.
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Love this idea!
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TIME magazine proved it was among the worst of the shill magazines, when we learned that its “reporters” are stack ranked based on benefit to advertisers.
The country needs a “best and worse media list”, based on journalistic independence from oligarch dominion.
A university ranking, based on research and faculty independence, from the richest 0.1%, would also aid, when the public rises up to make traitors to democracy, accountable.
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Yes! Awesome idea!
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In the #29th high school in Maryland, the first few on our list are schools that are private or vocational. Our #7th high school is in our county less than 5 miles away. The school is zoned for affluent students. My school (#29) has a more diverse student body. Will it be harder for us to get a good rank? Probably. This ranking system is rigged to favor affluent, non-diverse, private-like schools. Thanks for making the average public schools feel like losers.
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Hell, my district is so bad (sic)/low (sic) it’s not even ranked.
Thank freacking god!
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The US News and World Reports is responsible for some of the worst practices in schools. About two decades ago they started this silly crap, using primarily the number of ‘advanced placement COURSES’ an average graduate TOOK. NOT CREDITS earned, mind you. THE SCHOOLS ALL STARTED PUSHING KIDS INTO THOSE COURSES. The school was well rated despite almost NONE of the registered student sitting for the exam. Despite the idea that advanced placement was not considered a great idea by lots of colleges and universities.
This idiotic measure started this moronic competition, now compounded by the factors mention by Diane. WHAT DRIVEL-YET TO BE EXPOSED TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC!
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Yes!
We see it on both ends. At my previous school (Stuvesant) there’s a push for more and more garbage AP. What courses get cut? unique interesting singleton classes that encourage kids to think.
And then we see schools pushing ill prepared students into AP classes they’re ill prepared for which is just plain out cruel.
Nice payday for the college board though.
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That’s a great example of Campbell’s law:
“The more any quantitative social indicator (or even some qualitative indicator) is used for social decision-making, the more subject it will be to corruption pressures and the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt the social processes it is intended to monitor.”
As a direct response to the US News college rankings, colleges also started gaming the system. In some cases, that allowed them to move from low to high with little more than sleight of hand, which tells you all you need to know about how worthless the rankings actually are.
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Poet,
You’re right. I recall a community college that, without any expectation, suddenly appeared on the Report’s best list…. one time.
The rumored explanation was a PR person, the college hired for a brief stint. Even the college leadership was sheepish about touting the “honor”.
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Read How Northeastern Gamed the College Rankings
I’m pretty sure high schools are playing the same sorts of games, though with less money to work with. Of course, the high schools with the most money will be able to devote the most to gaming the system.
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Pushing all kids to take AP courses, ready or not, is a boondoggle for the College Board.
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Here’s what’s worse: rankings imply schools exist in a marketplace where “consumers” can make a “choice”. http://waynegersen.com/2016/04/25/ranking-schools-…-promotes-choice/
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smiley like emoticon
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That list has some serious issues too. In NYS, it doesn’t list Stuyvesant or Bronx Science as magnet schools, which they very clearly are. Trust me — I went to Stuy; you had to take a test to get in! That’s very definition of s magnet school, yet they’re listed under general schools.
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My favorite part is that when you drill down into the data… the best performing schools often have 10-20% excellent with 80-90% unknown… which means the school with only 10-20% success is getting 100% success because the “unknown” data is not used.
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