Bostonist: Bite Size News

cheap_robv

Tue, 20 May 2008 08:16:21 -0500

Harmy, it's true that schools can manipulate students for a better ranking. perhaps charter schools have an advantage, but those aren't bad indicators to claim success at a high school. i went to a catholic high school that strongly encouraged taking ap classes, and about 90%+ of my class went on to college (i think the rate has been consistent). we may have never been on a list, but i felt like i had great teachers who treated us (for the most part) like smart young people. ~r

Kerry Skemp

Mon, 19 May 2008 19:38:10 -0500

i was always annoyed that my high school never made it very high on that newsweek list, even though we apparently had some of the highest average ACT scores in the state. part of the reason was that students were scared to take AP classes for fear of ruining their perfect GPAs. sigh.

HarmyG

Mon, 19 May 2008 18:26:13 -0500

Congrats to MATCH, but all Newsweek measures is the percentage of students who took an AP or equivalent test. It could be easy for a school to "test to the list" so to speak, especially if the enrollment is small. Also, "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." And, "...schools had to have an average SAT score below 1300 on the reading and math sections, or an average ACT score below 29, to be included on the list." http://www.newsweek.com/id/137415