Westwood HS beats Westlake HS (Austin: high schools, college, calculated)

[gigi927]

Newsweek's latest issue reported on America's best high schools (in terms of quality of college prep), and 2 in Austin rate in the top 100. Westwood HS in RR placed at #88, I believe, and Westlake was BEHIND Westwood at somewhere around #93

I guess Westwood's got some new bragging rights to be proud of!!!!

[austin-steve]

It's an interesting formula used to come up with the list - divide the total number of AP/IB tests taken by the number of graduates. I've read a lot about the pros and cons of this formula.

The critics say that the formula doesn't take into account the results of the tests taken, and that some schools can just pile on the AP courses and rank high even if the kids scored poorly on the actual exams, or even failed. All that matters is that the class was taken and the exam given.

The advocates say, regardless of the actual AP test results, it's well accepted that kids who take AP courses fair much better in college than those who don't. In other words, a "C" in AP Algebra is better preparation for college than an "A" in the generic Algebra. Therefore, the test results are not the predictave indicator, the taking of the test (which requires taking the AP class) is.

Since the list is a ranking of how well high schools prepare kids to succeed in college, I've fallen on the "pros" side and agree with those who say the list, though imperfect, is a good measure of college preparedness. Though I would add it's not the end all measure of a good school.

About Westlake, my daughter is starting 9th grade there next year. The Westlake councilors discourage 9th graders from taking on too much the first year. They definitely do NOT try to pump up the AP attendance just for the sake of a higher ranking.

I was told that 9th graders might consider 1 AP class but none would be fine also. They often see kids who try to tackle 2 or 3 AP courses get way behind and frustrated because of the workload. Once you're in the class, you can't simply bail out and switch either, so we were advise "easy does it" in 9th grade.

I appreciate that the councilors at Westlake told us this. Not knowing any better, I probably would have my kid signing up for 2 or 3 AP classes thinking that would be smart.

[jhwest]

Where is Westlake HS?

[traceyr13]

Austin-Steve - your post is dead-on (and I full agree with your counselor's recommendations).

Any of these rankings always strike me as a bit dubious (not that I don't think it's funny and noteworthy that Westwood was "ranked" higher than Westlake!), precisely because so much depends on how they are calculated. Just because a school offers more AP classes does not mean it is "better" - oftentimes it just means it's bigger. There are so many intangibles to take into account - what is the average SAT scores, and how many students are taking those SAT scores? What is the percentage of students going on to college? Both of those stats are something I look for before the number of APs being offered.

As someone who worked in secondary education for 8 years and is now in higher education, I am pretty critical of these "rankings". But it's always fun to see!

[gigi927]

Yeah, they all have to be taken with a grain of salt. I was posting it more for fun than anything. I always like to see the undefeated champions get beat

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by traceyr13

Austin-Steve - your post is dead-on (and I full agree with your counselor's recommendations).

Any of these rankings always strike me as a bit dubious (not that I don't think it's funny and noteworthy that Westwood was "ranked" higher than Westlake!), precisely because so much depends on how they are calculated. Just because a school offers more AP classes does not mean it is "better" - oftentimes it just means it's bigger. There are so many intangibles to take into account - what is the average SAT scores, and how many students are taking those SAT scores? What is the percentage of students going on to college? Both of those stats are something I look for before the number of APs being offered.

As someone who worked in secondary education for 8 years and is now in higher education, I am pretty critical of these "rankings". But it's always fun to see!

They dont consider any school with an average SAT score substantially higher than the average (so schools like stuyvesant in NYC or the illinois math and science academy arent included).

They also divide by the total number of students so the total # doesnt matter

the rationale for not looking at student performance is that most schools are not trying to improve their rating on this list and so the default behavior is that they restrict attendance to the classes (they are optimizing for high AP scores on the tests) So looking at student performance didnt have any impact.