It’s that time of year again. Newsweek is back with it’s annual list of the top high schools in the US.
Of course, the methodology for compiling the list hasn’t changed.
It’s still based on Jay Mathew’s very narrow “challenge” index which ranks schools based on a ratio of the number of students taking AP, IB, or Cambridge tests to the number of graduates.
As always, the number of passing scores on those tests – or any other factor that might determine the quality of a school – is ignored.
While Mathew’s explanation for that exclusion is longer this year, it’s really no better.
Singling out one small quality factor and declaring that to be the basis for a nationally-distributed ranking of the “best” high schools is still a stupid idea.
But at least they didn’t splash it all over the cover this year.