High School Rankings
 

Well, looking at the Newsweek picture, I got looking around Newsweek and found the Top High School Rankings at msnbc.com

The full story is here: http://www.msnbc.com/news/917011.asp?0nw=n2d

And the ranking is here: http://www.msnbc.com/news/912995.asp

Well, Ithaca High School here is ranked #131:
How did other people's high schools rank up?

JR Tucker not on the list!

w00t!

Normal and darn pround of it! ;)

I think there are more that 737ish schools in America.... so, therefore... my school.. nor any of our neighboring schools will be found on the list! :(

Nice... Wissahickon comes in 475th. Imagine if we came in 341st.. :)
Wissahickon | Ambler | Pa. | 1.304

Monta Vista
 

Monta Vista is #82.

Monta Vista Robotics Team
Team 115

Ditto...except "Jr Tucker=Kokomo"

This ranking system means nothing as to the quality of a school. It's merely a ratio between how many students took AP/IB tests to the number of students in the graduating class.


This belongs in Chit Chat.

I agree. How can you say someplace is the "Best High School in America" solely on the number of AP/IB tests that its students took? That's only one single factor, and to give the #1 distinction based solely on that factor just doesn't seem right.

And guess what, Rochester isn't on the list either... we *only* had 400 AP tests taken this year.

56 . Wilson Magnet* | Rochester | N.Y. | 2.735

Home of the X-Cats.
Not too shabby!

Last rant, I promise.

***************************************

Hmm.....why doesn't this surprise me?

Beachwood, Aurora, Solon, Shaker Heights, Pepper Pike, Chagrin Falls......All of the ranked Cleveland-area schools seem to be located in VERY affluent suburban locations.

So, ultimately, in order to be considered the "best", it all boils down to who has the most $$$$???

It's the American Way....

I'd truly love to see a list of the most successful high schools whose hallways weren't paved with gold, whose teachers and administrators were at a significant disadvantage due to inadequate resources, and whose student population was filled with a higher percentage of troubled/misguided youth. Those schools who manage to do more with less - the ones who can turn not only the well-mannered but also the troubled, the poor, and the forgotten into college students - THOSE are the schools I'd consider the best in the nation, because they are inspiring students and creating futures for those who never believed they had any. Unfortunately, the educational handicap these schools are living with prevents them from saving as many as they'd like to. The next Dean Kamen could be working on his parents' farm right now in rural Ohio, and we might never see that kid become a great contributor to society because his school is denied the same educational programs that wealthier schools have.

It's your loss, America.

hmm...sometimes im grateful that Canada's education system differs in ways from the American system. Your schools probably offer more opportunity and richer experiences, not in monetary terms i mean, but overall. And at other times, the AP/IB debates rage on, drawing attention to any disparity between rural and city schools. For now, Canada's highest ranked schools are most likely private schools, much like the ones listed, but i am confident that public schools would rank quite high as well, including woburn. the only problem would be how to incoporate different streams (we have gifted, academic, applied) courses in our school into a ranking system.

This reminds me.. anyone know of any schools in canada that offer AP classes? i hear unionville does, but that was from a friend so i cant be sure = )

Aragon's number 470 on the list.
Frankly, I'm surprised we were listed at all.

I agree.. I attend a magnet school, Connecticut International Baccalaureate Academy of East Hartford High School, and this was its first year with a senior class. CIBA has 22 seniors, and as it stands now, we each took an average of 5 IB exams. All sophomores (26) take the AP Modern European History examination. That brings our average to (((22*5) + 26) / 22) or 6.181. That makes us the number two school in the country, and in our very first year as a four year school. What a laugh. That just proves this method, the challenge index, isn't that great. We are a public school who chooses students based on a lottery. If they do this challenge index next year, CIBA will be the number one or two school in the country, as we are now an official four year high school :)

518 . Poudre* | Fort Collins | Colo. | 1.258

yay. yeeeah, i'm outta here

hmmm, only one of our schools placed
Martin county : 436
Eh and I guess South Fork didn't make the cut

yeah this ranking isnt accurate, if you go by FCAT the florida standarized test, we should be #1 or #2 that comes out of our county, but we are unranked while many of the schools from our county are. Also our school has more silver knight (very prestigious and difficult scholarship contest in dade/broward counties) winners than any other schools after only having 2 graduating classes, and we still are unranked. But there really is no way to accurately rank a school seeing as how every school system and school is different the only way a ranking could be made is if all the schools took the same test and thier scores are how they are ranked. Our school many people do not take AP tests (we dont have IB) because the school has a large number of people in the arts magnet in our school, and they arent allowed to take AP classes or atleast are pressured into not taking the tests. Also the teachers from AP classes dont want some people taking the tests because they dont want thier rankings changed (our AP calc class last year of close to 70 peopl had 100% pass rate)

wow, i feel cool now. a bunch of the schools around us made the cut, but neither milford or lakeland made it. (milford and lakeland are the 2 schools that make up our team) does not making it mean that we seriously score that bad on tests??

hmmmm......private schools, aren't listed, so Loomis isn't on the list...

Private schools are not listed and neither are public schools that have entrance exams. This means that a lot of FIRST schools will not show up on the list. The list is interesting but meaningless in my opinion.

Hm. I didn't say it was accurate, I just found this method of ranking quite interesting...

I agree that there are many good schools out there that may not offer any APs at all and thereby couldn't make it on the list.

I don't know if this is happening in other schools or states but I know so many people at my old high school are taking junior college classes instead of AP classes because the University of California system no longer accepts most AP units. I just thought that was interesting....hmm, I wonder if AP's are being phased out.

thats weird... recently I read that AP's were on the rise and they may eventually replace the SAT's. I think it was in that article in Newsweek as a matter of fact...

Cory

As I understand it, this ranking essentially boils down to the following formula:
(# of APs taken) / (# of Graduating Seniors)

So, there are two ways to get your score up:

1: Take more APs!
2: Cut down on the number of seniors who graduate per year!


My school is number 383 by this list, but I would like to propose a slightly different ranking study: Lets change # of APs taken to # of passed AP exams! Sounds like a more accurate indication of school merit to me!

That's a lot of HS...
 

Note the number of HS: 14,000.

So ~800 FRC teams/ 14,000 HS = 0.057142857142857142857...

That's only 6% of the HS in this country that
are member of FIRST Robotics!

:eek:

Both our schools made it, as trivial as this rating may be

193 . Mira Costa | Manhattan Beach | Calif. | 1.916
490 . Redondo | Redondo Beach | Calif. | 1.294


Cool! Our team number is in our rating! :D

Bridgewater-Raritan High School is not on the list.

The Internationl Academy, the school that 469 is from, was ranked first. There's a big picture in the Newsweek of the team and their robot.

I think its only a top high school to you if you're in AP or IB Classes. If that made any sense :p

Well, you know why the International Academy ranked first? All students there are required to take at least 6 IB classes, and some even take 7. So, naturally, the number of IB tests taken would be very, very large.

i have to agree with you. i like the canadian education system. i think it makes more sense in many ways compared to the american system.

and about which canadian schools offer AP classes, i have no idea which ones do. however, i know that it is still possible to take an AP course and write the exam regardless of what school you go to. your school should have a booklet?? (i dont know what to call it) with details for taking AP courses. it's too late to enroll in them now, it might be helpful if you are planning for next year. hope that helps.

I'm suprised to see so few FIRST participating schools ranked in the top 50 or 100.

Our school (Newport High) got ranked 18th . I mean, after all Mike Riley (the devil) is our district director. :( He wants us to take at least one AP class for each core class, which is unbelievable.

AP isn't fun. But our school advocates is like... i don't know.
Our neighbors International School got 16th and Bellevue High School got 13th. All three of these schools participated in FIRST pacific NW regional and did pretty well.

Nah. It is called the "I want you to spend as much money at our colleges so we want you to take as many classes as you can." syndrome. At least that is what my mother says.
Personally I think ap is fun but that is because of my teacher.:D Anyway what about other courses that enrich ourselves. AP courses are not everything. My school has been very good with clubs and activities. We have even been involved with a science research project with the government on Gypsy mothes.

Keep in mind that not all of the students at a school are in robotics. We have about 0.5% of the students at Redondo in Robotics. And, some people can't pay for the AP tests. But it still is semi nice to be listed.

7 IB classes. Talk about no life!

Not only is this ranking based on AP alone, but it doesn't even take into account the scores students recieve on the AP tests! So any school could get ranked #1 if they only had AP courses.

Berkley's not listed....Although it's a good school, and I liked it, it didn't really stand out....Asides from it's robotics team of course ;)

Umm... Levin... the robotics team doesn't stand out. Berkley's a football town. Your grades reflect your sports team. We aren't listed because we don't do the AP testing AT Berkley, they are all done at a sort of magnet school one town over, so they get the credits. And that school isn't listed because most of the students taking it aren't enrolled at the magnet... Confusing? Yep.

my schools average is about .4 ,its a high school with graduating classes of 1100+ every year, so its not wonder the average is so low. theres a handfull of students with 6 or more ap's, then another handfull with 1 or 2 (where i fall in) or you just have all regular regents level courses