9486 in the collection
Why Doesn't Newsweek Tag Their List "The 100 Wealthiest Schools in America"?
Doing what no other journalist has done, this newspaper intern deconstructs "The 100 Best High Schools in America" hype.
In yet another attempt to oversimplify complex educational issues, Newsweek recently unveiled its list of "The 100 Best High Schools in America." The list joins the ranks of the No Child Left Behind Act, the FCAT and innumerable other assessment tools nationwide that attempt to judge schools based on too narrow a set of factors.
Newsweek's recipe for success is quite simple. Don't allow more than half of the school's students to test in. Handpicking 49 percent or even 50 percent is okay. Ensure that students take a large quantity of Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate tests. (Don't worry, the students don't have to pass.) Jot down the number of tests taken by the entire student body and divide it by the number of graduating seniors. Disregard student-teacher ratios, dropout rates, students' mastery of grade-level material, instruction in the arts, student safety and a myriad of other factors. And voila, the formula for a top-notch school appears.
But Joe Villani, deputy executive director of the National School Boards Association, is hesitant to give the rankings the association's stamp of approval. Villani said that while assessment is important, the concept of ranking is inherently flawed. Schools have unique goals, serve differing student populations and operate in varied social climates, and thus they cannot be compared unilaterally. "It's important for kids to challenge themselves academically," Villani said. "If that's what a parent is interested in - that kind of academic rigor - this is a good indicator. Does that mean those are the best schools? Absolutely not."
Many of the schools mentioned in Newsweek's rankings are good schools, but like 24th-ranked St. Petersburg High School, they have qualifications above the number of AP or IB tests taken. St. Petersburg High, which serves students from a variety of backgrounds, is known for its parental involvement and college attendance rates. Like the vast majority of the top-ranked schools, St. Petersburg High and Palm Harbor University High School, which ranked 205th on Newsweek's extended list, also have economically advantaged students according to national standards. They are not alone in this category.
"The 100 Wealthiest High Schools in America" would be a more appropriate title for these top-ranked schools. On average, only 9.8 percent of students at the top 100 schools were eligible for free or reduced lunches in 2001-02, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics. Free and reduced lunch eligibility is an indicator of a student's economic disadvantage, and 39 percent of students nationally were eligible in 2000-2001, according to the most recent comprehensive NCES data. Most of Newsweek's top 100 clearly are schools composed of the economically privileged, and many also are primarily populated by white students. Others are markedly diverse, but the rankings system does not stipulate that a school's low-income and minority students take tests as frequently or as successfully as their more advantaged counterparts.
The real story of the Newsweek rankings is something educators have known for years: Socioeconomically advantaged children tend to tackle more challenging course work than their disadvantaged counterparts. The rankings do nothing to sort out which schools are working with disadvantaged children and coming out on top. They do nothing to assess winning methods for educating the average student. They do nothing to examine whether the schools are producing well-rounded productive citizens.
Yet many people take the rankings seriously. Newsweek magazines containing the rankings fly off the shelf, and many school Web sites already are heralding their rank. Newsweek is not alone in its misguided search for simple answers to what works and fails in education. The No Child Left Behind Act attempts to rate schools across the nation based on scattershot criteria determined by an array of various officials. In its offshoot of the act, Florida slaps a school with an A or an F based solely on one test - the controversial FCAT.
It is up to educators, parents and policymakers to buck this trend toward one-stop standards and cure-all answers. The educational process is markedly complex. The ideal varies from child to child and, much more, from school to school and state to state. While assessment is one key to the success of public education, it is a mistake to arbitrarily choose a single standard by which to hold schools accountable.
Public school children will continue to suffer until the adults acting in their interest throw out the concept of a universal standard and a corresponding solution. Educators and concerned citizens must recognize the complexity of public education today and not waste precious time poring over rankings.
- Elyse Ashburn, a senior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is an intern on the Times editorial board.
— Elyse Ashburn
Education oversimplified
St. Petersburg Times
July 21, 2003
http://www.sptimes.com/2003/07/21/Opinion/Education_oversimplif.shtml
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
Pages: 380
[1] 2 3 4 5 6 Next >> Last >>
