[CSPS] The Complete List of the 1,000 Top U.S. High Schools

[Rebecca Hankins]

Newsweek had a live call in with the authors of this study yesterday. 
You can read the transcript on the web; interesting responses to some of
the questions.  No one came close to asking the question that Joe posits
or at least it was not listed.  Similar to what happens in Gainsville is
the Magnet School concept imposed in Louisiana; an attempt to keep
whites from fleeing to the suburbs or creating a dual private school
system.  It didn't work and that is why I didn't see many schools from
Louisiana on the list either.  

Rebecca

>>> <feagin at tamu.edu> 5/11/2005 5:17:49 PM >>>

Hi. There is something very strange about this ranking system. 
 
I know number 4 on the list very well, Eastside High in Gainesville
Florida, where one of my  young acquaintances goes right now. She is a
very talented black student in the IB program there, which IB (Int.
Baccalaureate) program is almost entirely white. 
 
(I moved from Gainesville last summer to here.)
 
The high school itself, set in communities of color, has a mostly white
IB program placed in it to appear desegregated, but the school itself is
mostly made up of working class Black and Latino kids who do NOT get the
kind of good education they deserve, and they certainly do not receive
the kind of educational program that this high ranking suggests that
they get. 
 
 
I wonder how many of the ranked schools involve this heavy tracking and
class/race segregated system.......
 
 
High schools in this country are severely underfunded, and a national
disaster --- note the 26,000 or so not in the rankings..
 
Judging from our school taxes and expenditures, as a nation, we seem to
'hate' our children......
 
 JF
 
 
 
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Mahajan, Arvind 
To: csps at PHILEBUS.tamu.edu 
Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2005 4:27 PM
Subject: [CSPS] The Complete List of the 1,000 Top U.S. High Schools



Newsweek has just now published its ranking of top U.S. high schools.
This list and the related article can be accessed at 
http://g.msn.com/0MN2ET7/2?http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7723397/site/newsweek&&CM=EmailThis&CE=1

CSISD is ranked # 447. 
According to the article, there are 27,468 high schools in the U.S.
Newsweek acknowledges that assessing such a large and diverse group of
schools is daunting. To come up with its Best High Schools List,
Newsweek used a ratio, the number of Advanced Placement (AP) and/or
International Baccalaureate (IB) tests taken by all students at a school
in 2004, divided by the number of graduating seniors. Using this
criterion, Newsweek has ranked 1,042 schools. 
Based upon these numbers, A&M Consolidated High School is in the top 2%
of all high schools in the nation and in the top half of all ranked
schools. This is a remarkable achievement for any high school, and in
particular, for a Texas high school. The CSISD administration  and
teachers deserve our congratulations for this feat. 
Coincidentally, in my very recent conversations with some CSISD
administrators and school board members, I had noted that it will be
desirable to know how Consol stacked up, not just against other Texas
schools, but nationally. Notwithstanding reasonable quibbling with the
criteria used and the coarseness of the rankings, they do shed light on
the issue.
Given this achievement,  A&M Consol's benchmark should now be to crack
the top one percent. How can CSPS help? 
Arvind 
Arvind Mahajan 
Lamar Savings Professor of Finance 
306N Wehner Building 
Texas A&M University 
College Station, TX 77843-4218 
Phone 979-845-4876 
Fax     979-845-3884 


_______________________________________________
CSPS mailing list
CSPS at csps.tamu.edu 
http://philebus.tamu.edu/mailman/listinfo/csps