U.S. News released its 2014 best high schools rankings this week.
You can see if your high school ranked here: U.S. News National Rankings Best High Schools.
Our own local high school is ranked, and moved up well in the rankings, but what does it mean?
According to U.S. News, the rankings are based on “overall student performance on state-mandated assessments, as well as how effectively schools educated their black, Hispanic and economically disadvantaged students. We then used participation in and performance on AP and IB exams to evaluate how well schools prepared students for college-level course work.”
So basically, the schools are ranked according to how schools perform on standardized tests. Because even AP tests, for all their lofty standards, are still just standardized tests. It also means that it ranks high schools only by how well they prepare students for college, not on how well they prepare students for life, careers, or creating their own jobs. All things I’m thinking about with what I want my kids to get out of their high school experience.
The fact that the ranking is based directly on how the schools performed on AP tests got my attention, because I’ve really been trying to figure out if a heavy load of advanced placement courses is the best path to success or if the answer to success is to not take a full load of advanced placement courses.
I couldn’t help but contrast this to a TED Radio Hour I recently listened to, that challenges how modern society defines success: Ted Radio Hour, Success. You can also find the TED Radio Hour on itunes. I listened to it using the app IPP Podcast on my android phone. In particular it made me think of the points that Angela Duckworth measures success more by “grit.” I’ve encountered her research in my reading about education. It also made me think of the assertion of Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs that the way we define success means that society is now in dire need to train people with skills.
The way U. S. News ranks high schools doesn’t take any of this into account. It seems biased in that after standardized state tests the only criteria used is performance on AP and IB exams. I think, however, that AP exams are much more prevalent. And when you look at the fact that the College Board administers both AP exams and the all-important SAT and PSAT exams, it appears that one company is getting rather an over-sized share of influence on how we’re educating our high school students.
While you can find plenty of critics for U.S. News college rankings, their high school rankings don’t get much attention. But I found a few references.
Joanna Weiss questions the usefulness of the U.S. News high school rankings in her piece, Redefining Teenage Success.
You can find a piece about the meaning of high school rankings in general on education.com, High School rankings, what do they mean?
And it looks like a local blog breaks it down in terms of what they know about their local school in BASIS and University High Are Top U.S. High Schools, Which Means . . .?
And there are some common sense analysis at Surprise! School for gifted kids is nation’s top high school.
As for our own local school, I think it’s a great high school. But I’m not sure that the number of AP classes the students take is the most important aspect. More on that in future posts…
What do you think? Was your high school in the rankings?
Oh, I have so much I want to say about this topic. For starters, the high school I attended was not even given a ranking because it placed so poorly. Ironically, I feel very strongly that the school prepared me for success. The school required loads of grit for survival. I learned survival in the hallway. You needed stamina to survive. Now, if you looked at our track team, the runners on my track team were banded together. We won states. We were diligent. But, we also had coaches that inspired this determination. My coach met me every morning all summer long and ran with me. In the class, the teachers believed in our growth. Now, I am a research faculty at a university.
However, I think the main problem is the way we define success. Success doesn’t mean making a lot of money or necessarily getting into the best school. Success isn’t necessarily me saying I am faculty at a University. Success is finding a passion in life and spending a lifetime determined to make a difference in that field. Success is just plain finding happiness in life. Just because you can answer a bunch of questions on a test doesn’t necessarily mean that after ten years doing the same thing at work you will be happy and successful. In the teaching I do, I meet a LOT of extremely intelligent students, and a good deal of them appear to be completely and utterly uninspired- bored. They are great at exams. They can answer any question, but they don’t seem inspired to be at school. There is no intellectual discourse or philosophical debate. There is no learning for the love of learning. If they believe there is not direct correlation to what they need to know for what they think they will be doing, I can almost see the light turn off. Learning is treated almost as a clinical process of training the mind to remember. I travel all over doing guest lectures, and I promise you that students that engage me most in debate and conversation, are the ones that have grit.
For my research, I go to industrial plants to assess occupational health. While in those plants, I meet these amazingly passionate people that are great at what they do; however in today’s terms we would never define that job title as successful. These mechanics, technicians, welders, carpenters are not only good at what they do, but they also seem happy. Their hands are dirty, and their hearts are full. So, this is my long winded way of saying- when my kids finally get to high school, I hope they are inspired. I hope they find passion. And, I hope that leads them to spend their lives pursuing excellence in that passion.
It’s so interesting that you mention the importance that sports played in your high school career- because I have really mixed feelings about high school and college sports. It’s such a huge part of society that I’m afraid to even touch it. 🙂 But I do think there are some benefits to sports; I just wonder if the balance has gotten off.
And what you say about passion and how we define success – that sounds so much like what I heard in the TED Radio Hour talks. And the same about your observation that the kids know how to do well in school but not being passionate. That fits with what I’ve been reading, so I’m really interested to hear from a personal perspective further evidence that it’s true. I’m afraid that the school schedule we’ve constructed for them – both academics and extra-curricular, including sports – doesn’t leave them time to find a passion. It’s something I’m struggling with, given the current circumstances, how can you help a student learn achievement and still find balance?
I ran in high school and college. I did not run my freshman year of college and was miserable mentally and physically. For me, running was a form of meditation and stress relief. I also participated in Division 3 athletics,which is a very different animal from Division 1 or 2. Our coaches had a clear emphasis on academics, and most kids on the cross country team were academic all-American. Even now, if I am having a hard time writing a report or figuring out a problem for work, I will go out for a run to clear my head. Possibly it is helping kids find an activity that helps to provide that balance, whether it is running, soccer, karate, or playing a musical instrument.
Right now, my oldest is only in first grade, but we realized that not doing any activities while she is in school is optimal for her to the downtime she needs to use her imagination. We were doing extra activities in the evening, and it wore on her. We may pick some things up this summer, but she is much happier if she has time to just play. She is only just a kid after all. I would rather her run outside, getting her hands dirty than worrying about more structured activities. However, I am left feeling guilty like I am depriving her since her friends are all in tons of activities; which their parents say are to prepare them for high school and college.
I know what you mean about finding an activity for balance – for me in college I recognized it was choir, which since I was signed up for a class meant I had to attend whether I had a chem test to study for or not. 🙂
I think it’s great that you recognized that the evening activities were wearing on your daughter and really paid attention to her needs. And I do know that you’re hearing that if she isn’t in X sport by the time she’s 4, then she’s already behind! But I think the issue here comes down to that comment you made about balance – high pressure sports are not a balance. That said, I will admit that I feel like organized sports are where all the socializing is going on right now, so it can feel a little isolating. On the other hand, it might just be my family’s personality no matter what we’re doing – and one benefit is that our family eats dinner together most nights of the week. Our kids notice if we go more than a couple of days without all sitting down to the dinner table together and complain, even though they are teens and preteens they still like family dinner.