The latest "Top High Schools" list - Newsweek/Daily Beast (Austin: 2014)

[synchronicity]

Because everybody always wants to look at these things, and because of course in my ISD our daily email blast touted the HS ranking in this thing, here's the latest from Newsweek/Daily Beast:

America

Among local schools, TAG was 3rd and SEM was 7th nationally. Uplift in Irving was 36th. Ft. Worth Academy of Fine Arts (how come nobody ever talks about that one on this forum?) was 84th.

Looking only at non-magnet publics, Lovejoy (where's that one Lovejoy cheerleader?) was 62d, while Carroll Senior was 73d. Interestingly enough, a "Westlake" was 72d, but it's one out in California. Westlake Academy was 261st. Highland Park was 77th.

It appears none of the Plano schools were on the list, so they likely did not submit data. I know they split 9-10 and 11-12, but so does Carroll so that can't be the only reason. There are only 700+ high schools on this list, and the ones at the bottom have pretty mediocre numbers, so that may be all the schools that they ranked. A number of other local schools (JJ Pearce, anyone) appear to be conspicuously absent. So this list is interesting but incomplete.

I didn't look at the ranking system in detail, because all of these are a bit silly beyond bragging rights and general info. We were informed that Carroll Sr.'s average ACT is now at 26.6 (latest SAT scores haven't been made available), which is a pretty impressive number. Of course, there are many things more important in education than SAT and ACT scores. (Like STAAR results!! )

Anyway, feel free to peruse and argue and whatever.

[GreyDay]

Proof that DISD can put out excellent students.

It does however help if the excellent students are self-selected and test selected. But the teaching talent is there.

It makes it a bit harder to use the 'DISD schools are horrible' as an umbrella statement. But people still will.

[loves2read]

Flower Mound is in top 90

[davecraze]

Westlake Academy wasn't 261. That is Westlake High School in Austin.

Just to show the absurdity of these types of rankings (as everyone already knows), the 261st ranked Westlake beats the 72d ranked Westlake in almost every stat, except for graduation rate, which is a mere 6% lower.

[synchronicity]

Originally Posted by davecraze

Westlake Academy wasn't 261. That is Westlake High School in Austin.

That's what I get for just reading the email rather than going further down the list and checking myself!

Originally Posted by davecraze

Just to show the absurdity of these types of rankings (as everyone already knows), the 261st ranked Westlake beats the 72d ranked Westlake in almost every stat, except for graduation rate, which is a mere 6% lower.

They apparently weight graduation rate very highly on these rankings, and I have no idea what the range is from high to low. Some rankings assign a low weight to one factor, but because of the disparity from "best" to "worst" that factor may have a disproportionate impact. There are also some factors (like number of AP tests taken) which vary regionally.

Sometimes the data is fun to play with, and these rankings always get looked at, but in the end how much help are they in determining an area to move to? Practically nil. But hey, they're out there and if our ISD was publicizing them you know they'll get bandied about.

[GreyDay]

Originally Posted by synchronicity

That's what I get for just reading the email rather than going further down the list and checking myself!



They apparently weight graduation rate very highly on these rankings, and I have no idea what the range is from high to low. Some rankings assign a low weight to one factor, but because of the disparity from "best" to "worst" that factor may have a disproportionate impact. There are also some factors (like number of AP tests taken) which vary regionally.

Sometimes the data is fun to play with, and these rankings always get looked at, but in the end how much help are they in determining an area to move to? Practically nil. But hey, they're out there and if our ISD was publicizing them you know they'll get bandied about.

You can draw your own conclusions from average SAT/ACT scores, graduation rate and A.P. passage scores- these all reflect on the quality of education the school offers. You can see trends better than absolute 1-2-3 rankings. Obviously that school bringing in average ACT scores of 31.7 is better than a school pulling in 17.

[Lovejoy_family]

If I'm the "cheerleader" I'm here. But I don't think I am the only Lovejoy supporter.