BASIS Charter in Tucson Tops Newsweek Ranking of Public High Schools; 22 in Top 100 Have Graduating Class Smaller Than 100 Students Florida has Most Schools in Top 100 with 18; Washington, D.C., Metro (16); Texas (14); New York (12)
NEW YORK, May 18 /PRNewswire/ -- In Newsweek's 2008 annual ranking of
America's top high schools, there are 22 schools in the top 100 that have
graduating classes smaller than 100 students. Ten years ago, when the first
Newsweek list based on college-level test participation was published, only
three of the top 100 schools had graduating classes that small. For the
complete list of the 1,300 top schools and Frequently Asked Questions, go to
Newsweek.com.
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080518/NYSU004 )
The number one school on the list is BASIS Charter in Tucson, with only
120 high-schoolers and 18 graduates this year. Second on the list is the
district-sanctioned magnet school Talented and Gifted in Dallas with 198
students. Suncoast Community in Riviera Beach, Fla., is third, followed by
Science and Engineering Magnet in Dallas, which shares a building with the
number two school. Rounding out the top 10: Stanton College Prep,
Jacksonville, Fla. (No. 5); Preuss UCSD, La Jolla, Calif. (6); Academic
Magnet, North Charleston, S.C. (7); Paxon School for Advanced Studies,
Jacksonville, Fla. (8); Oxford Academy, Cypress, Calif. (9), and International
School, Bellevue, Wash. (10).
Contributing Editor Jay Mathews reports in the May 26 issue of Newsweek
(on newsstands Monday, May 19) that the past decade has seen a noticeable
countertrend toward smaller schools, and the movement includes several of the
schools in the top 10. It also includes alternative schools with students
selected by lottery, such as H-B Woodlawn in Arlington, Va. And most
conspicuous of all, there is the phenomenon of large urban and suburban high
schools that have split up into smaller units of a few hundred, generally
housed in the same sprawling grounds that once boasted thousands of students
all marching to the same band.
The schools are ranked this year, as in years past, according to a single
metric, the proportion of students taking college-level exams: Cambridge,
International Baccalaureate and Advanced Placement. We count the total number
of these tests taken at a school by all students each May, and divide by the
number of graduating seniors. Any school with a ratio of 1.000 or higher is
placed on the Newsweek list. Over the years this system has come in for its
share of criticism for its simplicity. But that is also its strength: it's
easy for readers to understand, and to do the arithmetic for their own schools
if they'd like.
Ranking schools within the list is always controversial, and this year a
group of 38 superintendents from five states wrote to ask that their schools
be excluded from the calculation. "It is impossible to know which high schools
are 'the best' in the nation," their letter read, in part. "Determining
whether different schools do or don't offer a high quality of education
requires a look at many different measures, including students' overall
academic accomplishments and their subsequent performance in college, and
taking into consideration the unique needs of their communities."
There is, in our view, no real dispute here; we are all seeking the same
thing, which is schools that better serve our children and our nation by
encouraging students to tackle tough subjects under the guidance of gifted
teachers. And if we keep working toward that goal, someday, perhaps, a list
won't be necessary, Mathews writes.
(Read package and see the entire list of high schools at
www.Newsweek.com.)
http://www.newsweek.com/id/137547 - Story
http://www.newsweek.com/id/39380 - Complete list of 1,300 top high schools
SOURCE Newsweek
