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The 100 best schools in the U.S.A.

Are they really the 100 best schools in the U.S.?

Many of the high schools on Newsweek’s popular annual lists of the nation’s Top 100 schools have glaring achievement gaps between the races and high dropout rates, according to a new report.

Education Sector, an independent, nonpartisan education think tank, collected student performance data for the 100 schools in Newsweek’s 2005 “America’s 100 Best High Schools” issue. Its report — “Why Newsweek’s List of America’s 100 Best High Schools Doesn’t Make the Grade” — suggests that the formula the magazine uses to compile its list is too narrow.

“While some schools on Newsweek’s list may be among the best in the nation, a closer look at the data reveals that many do not meet a reasonable definition of a good high school,” the report says. “Indeed, some of the schools on the list have such significant achievement gaps that they should be on a list of schools needing improvement rather than on one for best schools."

“So many of the schools on the list have such significant gaps in achievement among their student subgroups that it calls into question that entire Newsweek enterprise.”

The list’s creator responds:

Jay Mathews, the creator of Newsweek’s formula, says the narrowness of the Challenge Index is one of its strengths.

“Its narrowness and simplicity means that readers can easily see what I am doing and judge for themselves if it makes sense to them,” says Mathews, an education reporter at the Washington Post. “Since the rating involves two easily obtainable numbers, they can do the arithmetic themselves for their own schools and see how they compare to those on the list.”

He says that if Newsweek used more sophisticated measures like the adequate yearly progress requirements in No Child Left Behind, it would “leave the reader lost in a statistical jungle, as he or she is with the U.S. News college list.”

Of course, this just opens up the whole debate over judging quality and performance in schools.  But if it’s true this list applies merely to those in a certain economic bracket, then would it be fair to say that even our best high schools are mediocre?