U.S. Need and World Report - GA's top high schools (Atlanta: credit, home)

[TravelEasy]

I thought Grady was considered better than Decatur High? I guess that the IB program causes Decatur to perform higher than Grady or are there other factors as well?

[sedimenjerry]

Originally Posted by kool hand luke

If Georgia is #12, that's pathetic for our nation. I went to Ga schools, most of my extended family did as did my daughter. Our collective experience was that High Schools here are a joke. Spelling your name correctly will earn a diploma! The schools on your list may be good, but are NOT representative of the state. Most are in affluent white areas, I've heard too many stories of honor students from Ga High Schools (some on your list) not being prepared for freshmen level college classes- despite being A students in High School! Ga High Schools are about "LOOKING GOOD"- not actually doing good. No offense aimed at teachers, it's just that the standards are incredibly "dumbed down.

This isn't an average. It's just the amount of schools ranked near the top which is easier to do with a larger population. The best school was in Dallas in a state that otherwise doesn't perform very well.

[ATLTJL]

A lot of the top schools here are located in wealthy wealthy suburbs.

Not so sure about that.

I would venture to say that more than 50% of the schools listed here offer homes within their districts that cost less than similar home in the city of Atlanta would cost.

[ATLfromJAX]

The only factor I look at in rating high schools in the Atlanta-metro is average SAT score. That gives a good sense off overall college readiness and level of competition of its students.

[deacongirl]

Originally Posted by kool hand luke

If Georgia is #12, that's pathetic for our nation. I went to Ga schools, most of my extended family did as did my daughter. Our collective experience was that High Schools here are a joke. Spelling your name correctly will earn a diploma! The schools on your list may be good, but are NOT representative of the state. Most are in affluent white areas, I've heard too many stories of honor students from Ga High Schools (some on your list) not being prepared for freshmen level college classes- despite being A students in High School! Ga High Schools are about "LOOKING GOOD"- not actually doing good. No offense aimed at teachers, it's just that the standards are incredibly "dumbed down.

Anecdotally my daughter at one of the schools high on the list just told me that friends who have gone to Chapel Hill, Brown, Vanderbilt, etc. felt like college was easier than high school and that they were very well prepared for college.

[arjay57]

Nice to see much maligned DeKalb topping many of the further out suburban schools.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by TravelEasy

I thought Grady was considered better than Decatur High? I guess that the IB program causes Decatur to perform higher than Grady or are there other factors as well?

You're the first person I've ever heard say they thought that. Maybe 20 or 30 years ago things were different, but its not anywhere close now.

[Dkeating]

Originally Posted by TravelEasy

I thought Grady was considered better than Decatur High? I guess that the IB program causes Decatur to perform higher than Grady or are there other factors as well?

Decatur High has fewer students eligible for free or reduced lunch (21%) than does Grady (37%).

[red92s]

Originally Posted by TravelEasy

I thought Grady was considered better than Decatur High? I guess that the IB program causes Decatur to perform higher than Grady or are there other factors as well?

Decatur is getting more and more affluent by the month. There are very few pockets of Decatur left with anything but middle class and upper middle class residents. Grady still draws from some pretty rough areas, including the hot mess on Boulevard and "The Bluff".

[residinghere2007]

In case it hasn't been posted here is the methodology:

Step 1: The first step determined whether each school's students were performing better than statistically expected for students in their state.

We started by looking at reading and math results for all students on each state's high school proficiency tests. We then factored in the percentages of economically disadvantaged students – who tend to score lower – enrolled at the schools to identify schools performing much better than statistical expectations.
U.S. News made one important methodology change to Step 1 in the 2015 rankings compared with previous editions of the rankings. We lowered the performance threshold necessary for a school to pass Step 1. To qualify for the rankings published from 2012 to 2014, schools had to meet a performance threshold of one-half of one standard deviation above the average. For this year's rankings, schools only had to reach one-third of one standard deviation above the average.
This slightly lower threshold was applied to a school's performance compared with what would be statistically expected for that school, based on its percentage of economically disadvantaged students. The change meant that a larger percentage of high schools passed Step 1 in 2015 than in last year's rankings, and it resulted in hundreds more high schools winning medals. In the 2015 rankings, approximately one-third of eligible high schools earned a medal, compared with around one-fourth of those eligible in 2014.
Even with the lower threshold, schools still had to perform better than average to win a medal. One key reason for implementing this change is to reduce year-to-year volatility in the rankings, so fewer high-performing schools drop out of the rankings over small changes in their performance on state assessments.

• Step 2: For schools passing this first step, the second step assessed whether their disadvantaged students – black, Hispanic and low-income – were outperforming disadvantaged students in the state.
We compared each school's math and reading proficiency rates for disadvantaged students with the statewide results for these student groups and then selected schools that were performing better than their state averages.

• Step 3: Schools that made it through the first two steps became eligible to be judged nationally on the final step – college-readiness performance – using Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate test data as the benchmarks for success, depending on which program was largest at the school.
AP is a College Board program that offers college-level courses at high schools across the country. The International Baccalaureate program also offers a college-level curriculum.
Alabama, Minnesota and South Dakota were the only states that did not give U.S. News permission to use their schools' Advanced Placement data in Step 3 of the rankings. Therefore, schools in those states were only able to be rated on IB data in Step 3, if those data were available. Both Alabama and Minnesota had schools with IB data.
This third step measured which schools produced the best college-level achievement for the highest percentages of their students. This was done by computing a College Readiness Index based on the school's AP or IB participation rate – the number of 12th-grade students in the 2012-2013 academic year who took at least one AP or IB test before or during their senior year, divided by the number of 12th-graders – and how well the students did on those tests.
The latter part, called the quality-adjusted AP or IB participation rate, is the number of 12th-grade students in the 2012-2013 academic year who took and passed – received an AP score of 3 or higher or an IB score of 4 or higher – at least one of the tests before or during their senior year, divided by the number of 12th-graders at that school. Any individual AP or IB subject test was considered when determining if a student took or passed at least one test.
For the College Readiness Index, the quality-adjusted participation rate was weighted 75 percent in the calculation and the simple AP or IB participation rate was weighted 25 percent. The test that was taken by the most students at a particular school – either AP or IB – was used to calculate that school's College Readiness Index.