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Schools can't be defined by stats in Newsweek index
By Patty Fisher
In the war against superficial status symbols, Palo Alto Unified's decision to retire from Newsweek magazine's annual "we take more AP tests than you do" contest is only a minor victory.
But you've gotta start somewhere.
I've never been a fan of the so-called "Challenge Index," which ranks America's public high schools based solely on the number of advanced placement and international baccalaureate tests students take. It's nonsense to reduce the complex factors that determine education quality to a single statistic - especially one that doesn't acknowledge that kids who aren't AP material might deserve an education, too.
So, we need a new index. Call it the "Challenge to the Challenge Index." I'll let you help me decide which criteria to use for determining which high schools are the best.
Last year, when I was writing about Gunn High School in Palo Alto making Newsweek's top 100, it was obvious to me that the district found the news underwhelming. Gunn Principal Noreen Likins said the distinction was misleading and that the attention it brought her school was, frankly, bothersome. Meanwhile, cross-town rival Palo Alto High wasn't even in the magazine because no one bothered to fax in the survey data. (Paly eventually did send in the paperwork and was later ranked 361.)
So I wasn't exactly surprised this year when the Palo Alto Unified School District decided to officially opt out. I hope other districts will do the same. Why should we let
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Newsweek and the monopolistic College Board, which owns the AP curriculum and has a vested interest in promoting the tests, tell us which high schools are the best? Shouldn't we encourage schools to foster a love of learning instead of a lust for awards?
Jay Matthews, the Washington Post columnist who invented the Challenge Index, doesn't claim that it's a definitive assessment tool. He does note, however, that APs prepare kids to succeed in college. So he wants to encourage more kids to take them.
Fair enough. But what else makes a high school great? Inspiring teachers and principals? Winning sports teams? Fancy science labs? I'd include all of those in our index.
What about happy kids who love learning? Should that be part of the index?
Ethan Yazzie-Mintz would say so. He's a researcher at the University of Indiana's Center for Evaluation & Education Policy, and he has strong ideas about what makes a great high school: Kids who feel valued, engaged. Kids who feel challenged intellectually. Kids who aren't bored.
Yazzie-Mintz runs the center's High School Survey of Student Engagement. Last year 81,000 students in 110 schools across the country were polled. The results were disturbing: Nearly half of the students didn't feel that they were an important part of their school community. And 67percent said they were bored every day at school. The material was either irrelevant, too hard or too easy. They didn't feel connected to their teachers.
"Think of trying to get up every morning knowing that you were going to be bored," Yazzie-Mintz said. "How long would we last in jobs like that?"
OK, so school isn't going to be fun all the time. But why is it boring?
"Teachers are just teaching their curriculum and not paying attention to whether the students are learning and are engaged," he said.
"Students are just going through the motions. They know that if they just do the assignments and get the credits and get the grades, then they can move on to the next level - college."
Does that sound like any teenagers you know?
— Patty Fisher
San Jose Mercury News
2007-05-23
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_5965012
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