Newsweek 2009 top 1500 schools (Commack, Northport, Nassau: 2011, top schools, college)

[rocafeller05]

Overall US- America's Top Public High Schools | Newsweek Best High Schools | Newsweek.com

NY state - America's Top Public High Schools | Newsweek Best High Schools | Newsweek.com

[AlexisT]

It's a lousy index. Number of AP/IB/Cambridge tests taken per capita, that's it. You could have an awful high school that enters everyone for AP and bingo! Top high school in the US. It's also unfairly biased towards selective schools where everyone will take AP/IB.

[OhBeeHave]

Public schools are ranked according to a ratio devised by Jay Mathews: the number of Advanced Placement, Intl. Baccalaureate and/or Cambridge tests taken by all students at a school in 2008 divided by the number of graduating seniors.

If I understand correctly, a school which offers a decent number of the aforementioned exams, but has a small graduating class, will score higher than a large district offering as many of those classes, but with a larger graduating class?

Investigating the IB site, www.ibo.org , there are a whopping 5 schools on all of LI which offer the DP programme.
Bayshore, Commack, Locust Valley, Northport & Southside (RVC). Is it possible that if more LI HS offered these exams, that we would see a stronger showing of LI schools?

[zulu400]

Originally Posted by AlexisT

It's a lousy index. Number of AP/IB/Cambridge tests taken per capita, that's it. You could have an awful high school that enters everyone for AP and bingo! Top high school in the US. It's also unfairly biased towards selective schools where everyone will take AP/IB.

Isn't there a criteria to enter a student for those tests ? Can a school just choose to enter every student ?

[thepokerdepot]

Originally Posted by rocafeller05

Overall US- America's Top Public High Schools | Newsweek Best High Schools | Newsweek.com

NY state - America's Top Public High Schools | Newsweek Best High Schools | Newsweek.com

What?
Long Island Schools are not the best??
Hurry and lets higher the School Taxes!!
Call the Army!!

[llama8]

Originally Posted by zulu400

Isn't there a criteria to enter a student for those tests ? Can a school just choose to enter every student ?

There should be, but there no longer is in so many schools because they aim to make this meaningless list. It is a disservice to the kids who actually belong in those classes.

This list is a joke....and I am a teacher whose school is on the list.

[KENNY GUIDO]

The title says "top schools" but the list if only for "high schools".

[djdairyp]

Originally Posted by zulu400

Isn't there a criteria to enter a student for those tests ? Can a school just choose to enter every student ?

You don't even have to take a class to take the test. Either the school or the students can simply pay to take it in any subject even if they have no idea about anything and the stat doesn't account for this. This is the reason that the US news rankings were much more relevant because they account for performance on AP tests as well, and US news also included other areas in their ratings. I am not saying their ratings are accurate, but at least better than Newsweek. Its pretty difficult to make comparisons on schools, even looking at SAT results ... you might think that the top SAT results mean good schools, but when you look into the numbers you see that the top results come from a state where the percentage of students actually taking the test is very low so only the best are being factored in where other states have near 100% participation which lowers the scores.

Actual results on AP tests are slightly more relevant, though they can also run into the problem of under qualified test takers in one area vs. elite in another. Anyhow, NY state has been at or near the top of AP test performance for many years with LI noted as pulling those scores up with strong AP programs having relatively high enrollment.

[flowergarden]

The Newsweek list is only one small indicator when looking at how well a high school is educating its children. Newsweek only looks at how many children are taking a test, not how many do well on the test. US News and World report looks at how many children do well on the test (scoring a 3 or higher) versus student population. What you'll see though is that many of the same schools are on both lists. When a school is ranked on the top 100 of the US News and World report list, and they have an average "older" SAT score over 1150 and a "new" SAT score in the 1800s - well then you have a pretty great school. SAT's and AP's are national tests - everyone takes the same test. These are better judges of how well a school is doing on a national level. This is what college admissions boards look at when looking at students and high schools. Long Island has a few great schools. These schools are somehow working within the antiquated regents system to provide high level education to its students.

Most of Long Island schools are centered on the regent’s tests. The regents are a proficiency test - judging if your students are meeting a MINIMIUM requirement. Then we "rank" our schools having one school ranked higher b/c they had 55% of the kids get a 65% or higher versus a school with 54% of the kids scoring above 65. The difference between the schools is minimal, yet the LI population puts a lot of emphasis on this ranking. The regents system is good at determining schools that really are not doing well, but it's not very good at differentiating between a good school and a great school. The slice is too thin.

Many LI schools don't readily publish their average SAT scores or show how many of their students are scoring 4 and 5's on the AP's. These show national achievement; and frankly not many LI schools would show well. Until LIers start making noise about wanting their schools to be the best in the nation, with emphasis on higher level achievement rather than "we're as good as the school in the next town over, that is on the Newsweek list" - then we will continue to remain stagnant in educating our children - watching other states and schools implementing better teaching techniques and curriculum while NY remains teaching the same stuff we have for the last 2 generations.

Education has come along way in the past generation, but LI schools have not. Both the Newsweek ranking and the US World Report Ranking show us this, we are just refusing to see it.

[rocafeller05]

US News top 100 schools = Best High Schools: Gold Medal List - US News and World Report

Here are the only 2 schools from Suffolk Co. to get recognized = Best High Schools Search - US News and World Report

Here are the Nassau schools = Best High Schools Search - US News and World Report