pic: Las Guerillas in NEWSWEEK!

[CD47-Bot]

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[Koko Ed]

I wonder if there is a list of teams from the list of top 100 high schools that are affiliated with FIRST?

[T967]

I didn't check but I'm sure there are. MANY schools from the east coast on the list california too.

[evulish]

Heh. The way they judged that doesn't seem quite right. I understand it's an arduos task to find the best highschools...but they seem to leave out the little ones. My graduation class of 80 had only 3 AP courses available. Out of those 3 AP tests, only 4 or so in each class take the AP test. I'm not saying my highschool should be on the list...but their way is really bad for grading smaller schools like mine. Out of my graduating class of 80...not one is going to fail out. Over half the class is continuing their education at a 4 year school. How many huge schools can say that? (I don't really know ...I've never been in a city for much more than a day at a time)

</rant>

But anyways, good job on the huge photo

[Jeff Waegelin]

Originally posted by evulish
Over half the class is continuing their education at a 4 year school. How many huge schools can say that? (I don't really know ...I've never been in a city for much more than a day at a time)

I don't really mean to say anything bad about your school, but Rochester High School has an enrollment of 1900, our graduating class is 540, and 95% of the students go on to college. It's just different for bigger schools in suburban communities.

[Melissa Nute]

I can tell you the number 2 school on that list also has a FIRST team

We used to be number 1 though...

[SarahB]

Originally posted by evulish
Heh. The way they judged that doesn't seem quite right.

I agree, the criteria for judging seems kind of wrong. <RANT> Their ranking was determined only by the number of AP and IB tests taken by all students divided by the number of graduating seniors. So there’s absolutely no consideration of how well the students do, just how many students take the exams. Theoretically a school could have all their Freshmen and Sophomores take one AP each, all the Juniors take 2, and all the Seniors take 3 and they’d me at the top of the list, even if none of the kids even passed the tests. And even worse, they’re kind of inconsistent in the schools they rank. They don’t rank magnet schools that choose more than half their students by academic criteria(which seems like a perfectly fair way to do it), but they do rank magnet schools that choose between their applicants using a lottery(which seems kind of unfair to me). They say this is because the former pick only the best students and thus have an unfair advantage, but it seems to me that the schools that pick by a lottery have mostly the same types of students. Most magnet school is only going to attract more intelligent students who push themselves(or are pushed by their parents), regardless of whether the final students are picked by academic criteria or a random lottery. Besides, the intelligence of the student body shouldn’t matter too much when their only selection criteria is the number of AP tests taken . </rant>

Ok, I’m done. Back to your regularly scheduled reading . And congrats again to team 469 on the big picture in a national magazine! Its too bad they couldn’t have focused the article more on FIRST and your team…

[Travis Hoffman]

Originally posted by Jeff Waegelin
I don't really mean to say anything bad about your school, but Rochester High School has an enrollment of 1900, our graduating class is 540, and 95% of the students go on to college. It's just different for bigger schools in suburban communities.

Different in what ways?

Are you saying that the level of educational opportunities in these suburban schools is significantly higher than that of rural or inner city schools? Does this not highlight a major flaw in this country's system of education? If a child comes from a poor family or lives in an area with a low population density, why should he/she be subjected to a potentially worse educational experience than those kids living in suburban areas?

Students in some school districts attend classes in old, substandard buildings with outdated textbooks and few, if any, AP, IB, or college prep level courses, while others go to school in pristine palaces filled with every college prep course you could ever think of. The fact this level of educational disparity is allowed to exist in this country disgusts me.

A little anecdote - about 8 years ago, a couple students from a very rural school district (I think 50 kids were in the graduating class) were competing on an Academic Challenge TV show against kids from two suburban schools. In the middle of the show, the team captains from each team had the opportunity to read a little bio on their respective schools. The rather haughty captain from one of the suburban schools chose to mention the fact that their high school had one computer for every student. The rural high school had a small room containing 10 or so outdated Macs. The team from the rural school proceeded to handily defeat the other two teams. This team was also one of the most successful academic challenge teams in the county for four years, in which time it managed to defeat all of the other county teams, many of which were from wealthier school districts. This made the kids on the rural team quite happy, for they never liked it when kids from other schools flaunted their superior resources or made fun of their rural nature.... These kids were lucky, for their success was directly attributable to the dedication and care given to them by a very small group of schoolteachers who were determined to see them succeed despite the financial limitations of their district.

For those who are fortunate enough to attend larger schools with better resources, I am happy you have been given such a great opportunity. However, if you have a negative opinion of smaller schools (this isn't pointed at you Jeff, it's a general request), please do not look down upon these schools who are forced to work harder to achieve results with less. The teachers and administrators of these schools might not turn out the high percentage of college students that private, suburban, or other wealthier schools achieve (and how much of that percentage is related to the fact that far more parents in those districts can actually AFFORD to send their children to college?), but they manage to do a pretty darn good job with what they've been given.

KUDOS TO THE LITTLE GUYS!

[Jeff Waegelin]

I wasn't trying to say anything negative about smaller schools. I was just pointing out a fact, since evulish asked if any big schools had a big percentage of students attending college. I'm not trying to say "My school's better than yours." I was just answering a question. I have nothing against smaller schools or rural schools.

and how much of that percentage is related to the fact that far more parents in those districts can actually AFFORD to send their children to college?

Heh... more truth to that than you could possibly imagine. I'd guarantee that's why Rochester has such a high percentage of students attending college. Though it does say something about the school, the real crucial factor is, sadly, money.

[Solace]

yeah, and the list and article are about public schools only (i'm pretty sure). I realized that most kids in america go to public schools, but i would have liked to see private high schools ranked in there too.

[Travis Hoffman]

Originally posted by Jeff Waegelin
I wasn't trying to say anything negative about smaller schools. I was just pointing out a fact, since evulish asked if any big schools had a big percentage of students attending college. I'm not trying to say "My school's better than yours." I was just answering a question. I have nothing against smaller schools or rural schools.

I know you weren't being negative, I just felt like venting - this subject fires me up more than most others.

[SarahB]

Originally posted by Solace
yeah, and the list and article are about public schools only (i'm pretty sure). I realized that most kids in america go to public schools, but i would have liked to see private high schools ranked in there too.

Yes, the list was public schools only. But most rankings of schools don’t include private schools and for good reason. Private schools are, for the most part, only an option for families with money. Because of this, private school students get the advantage of much more money going into their education. Private schools also are able to offer more expensive APs and IBs. In more traditional rankings which are based on the number of students going to college and/or SAT/ACT scores, private schools have an even bigger advantage. Their students almost always have the money to go on to college as well as to pay to take the SAT/ACT multiple times and take all sorts of prep courses to boost their score.

[Joe Matt]

Well, to get back on topic and not on the old 'I'm special, hug me' debate, I really like how the school decided to have their FIRST team represent their school, instead of a band or sports team.

I bow down to Las Guerillas.

[Meredith Rice]

Yeah, its great to see a FIRST team with this great publicity, so lets not get caught up on school rankings and AP stuff (we get enough of that with colleges and it is no judge of a school's true quality). The great thing is, as Joseph M. said, is that Newsweek recognized robotics, an aspect of the school that is becoming more and more appealing in comparison to sports teams. Now other parents reading will recognize that there is another area for their kid to excel in when they look at schools. Seeing robotics being advertised by one of the top schools will entice school principals around the country to get involved in FIRST.

[Jeff Waegelin]

Originally posted by JosephM
Well, to get back on topic and not on the old 'I'm special, hug me' debate, I really like how the school decided to have their FIRST team represent their school, instead of a band or sports team.

That's because the IA doesn't have a sports program. Students at the IA participate in things like sports and marching band at their "home schools" (the school they would be districted to typically). Robotics is just about the only team they do have.