Fuck you, Newsweek.

[SuperJerk 0]

I might have posted about this a year ago when they pulled this stunt, but the fact they did it again just pisses me off that much more.

 

Newsweek ONCE again made a list of their "Top" high schools using this critieria:

With our Best High Schools list, NEWSWEEK recognizes schools that do the best job of preparing average students for college. By dividing the number of AP and IB tests taken at a school by the number of graduating seniors, we can measure how committed the school is to helping kids take college-level courses.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12532668/site/newsweek/

TAKING the tests. Not "pass." Not "score the best on." Simply TAKING the test.

 

 

So...the entire way (yes, ENTIRE way, despite the other factors that make up a good school mentioned in the article, this is the only measurable one they took into account) to measure how good a school is who has the biggest number of kids taking the AP/IB tests?

 

Public schools are ranked according to a ratio, devised by Jay Mathews, that is the number of Advanced Placement and/or International Baccalaureate tests taken by all students at a school in 2005 divided by the number of graduating seniors. All of the schools on the list have an index of at least 1.000; they are in the top 5 percent of public schools measured this way.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12532678/site/newsweek/

 

Newsweek = total fucking morons.

 

Education in this country is never going to improve until people can figure out a legitimate way of measuring school success.

[Hank Kingsley 0]

Seriously. What's worse is that more and more people are being told that they have "AP potential" and, at least down here, even if a teacher doesn't recommend a student for an AP class, a parent can easily override and get their kid in. I think our school alone has 100+ people taking the AP Psych exam next Wednesday, when probably 60% will pass.

[Vampiro69 0]

Geez, this pisses me off to no end. I student taught this semester and the teacher I had taught an AP classes on Economics. Half of those kids had no clue as to what was going on.

 

Shouldn't the best way to judge how well the schools do is by looking at GPA and graduation results? If I am wrong I apoligize, I want to know if others have a better suggestion.

[Ginger Snaps 0]

Welcome to America, where we have to make the stupid kids feel like they're important too.

[Danville_Wrestling 0]

Geez, this pisses me off to no end. I student taught this semester and the teacher I had taught an AP classes on Economics. Half of those kids had no clue as to what was going on.

 

Shouldn't the best way to judge how well the schools do is by looking at GPA and graduation results? If I am wrong I apoligize, I want to know if others have a better suggestion.

 

Ah, economics...a lost art in our schools. I was able to burn up my Micro and Macro classes last year simply because I follow the news and taught econ to myself but I wish my schools offered AP Macro/Micro because it would've eliminated 9 hours of econ credit for me in college.

 

As far as judging schools part of me thinks it's damn near impossible. For one, states continue to set their own independent standards so that makes it hard to compare schools in one state to another state. Also, if you simply go by GPA's you don't take into account grade inflation as much (for example, you have the Geography football teacher who gives worksheets and grades without checking vs. the Geography teacher who does care and grades hard). Now with graduation rate I think your really saying something about the school but even that can be impacted by socioeconomic factors.

 

All in all, I don't know if there is a clear way to distinguish what are the best schools but I know Newsweeks method listed above is flat out stupid.

[SuperJerk 0]

^100% correct.^

 

 

And my state is thinking about using the ACT as their state assessment for high school kids. The problem is that the test is only written for 11th/12th graders.

[Bored 0]

Hey my high school ranked 293rd, not that it did anything for me.

[SuperJerk 0]

Hey my high school ranked 293rd, not that it did anything for me.

Did you take the AP exam, though?

[DARRYLXWF 0]

VOUCHERS

[Vampiro69 0]

Funny how North Dakota had no schools on the Newsweek list, even though we graduate about 98% of the students in the state. You would have thought it would have counted for something.

[Guest NYankees]

Funny how North Dakota had no schools on the Newsweek list, even though we graduate about 98% of the students in the state. You would have thought it would have counted for something.

 

 

It's not that hard to have a graduation rate like that when most high schools have like 5 people per class.

[Vampiro69 0]

Funny how North Dakota had no schools on the Newsweek list, even though we graduate about 98% of the students in the state. You would have thought it would have counted for something.

 

 

It's not that hard to have a graduation rate like that when most high schools have like 5 people per class.

 

Nice random observation . We have small towns here, but we consolidate the schools so that the students can have more options for classes. The smallest of classes that we have here are 20 students. That would still mean that out of 20 students 19 would graduate. Which I bet is better then most places.

[Slayer 0]

Funny how North Dakota had no schools on the Newsweek list, even though we graduate about 98% of the students in the state. You would have thought it would have counted for something.

 

It's not that hard to have a graduation rate like that when most high schools have like 5 people per class.

What's funny about this is that if you were to have such a small sample, even one person failing would throw your %age way down, which invalidates the "argument" in the first place

 

Yeah I know it was a joke, just not a well-thought one

[SuperJerk 0]

VOUCHERS

are dumb.