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Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowedHere is the school attendance map for J L Mann. It includes all of the upscale neighborhoods of the Parkins Mill and East Parkins Mill area (Gower, Collins Creek, Parkins Lake, etc) - of course, not all attend public school. Further, J L Mann catchment includes parts of the Eastside, north/west Mauldin, and parts of Five Forks.
Thanks man. I figured Parkins Mill area and parts of Mauldin but never would have guessed Five Forks and parts of eastside. It is always difficult to guess which school kids will be zoned for, especially a metro like Greenville with so many schools.
Is that where you send your kids or the one downtown? I think I saw you said you lived in the Parkins Mill area. My friend works at Fluor and lives out that way off of Laurens Road.
Also performing well in an AP class over a long period time demonstrates your consistent work ethic, which is actually more vital in college than just overal potential and intellect, which tends to be demonstrated by test scores. I think SAT scores are a good tool but I think GPA and taking more challenging classes in high school tends to predict success in college much more accurately than test scores can.
I agree with a lot of what you are saying but this methodology only gives 5% weight to being in an AP class - it gives 5x as much weight (25%) for taking the test regardless of the score and then an extra 10% based on the test score.
So if we think of 2 students:
Student #1 takes an AP class but doesn't take it seriously. Struggles, takes the test and does miserably. That student according to Newsweek is an example of a high performing high school (25% credit for taking test, 5% for being in an AP course).
Student #2 takes the same class but instead of AP takes it as dual enrollment with the community college. They take the course seriously, and get an "A" in both the high school class and in the college class that counts as transferable college credit. That student according to Newsweek is NOT an example of a high performing high school (0% for dual enrollment courses).
Student #2 will likely do better in college - the fact that Newsweek doesn't give them any weight for their dual enrollment course is something I find puzzling. The much higher weight to taking the AP test as opposed to taking an AP course or passing the AP exam is also puzzling to me. Just taking the test isn't much of a measure of school success.
it's sad too b/c wade hampton in the last 2-3 years has made themselves into a better school than riverside, eastside and mann. if you compare hsap scores, grad rates, eoc pass rates and life scholarship qualifiers among all 4 schools wade hampton surpasses all of them.
I'd have no problems sending my kids to Wade Hampton or any school in Greenville except maybe the downtown one but I don't know much about it.
The methodology for this list is suspect at best. 25% of the score is the number of AP/IB tests taken per student. The students could do miserably on the tests but the school gets rated well just because they took the tests. 10% for the student scores on AP/IB tests and another 5% for number of students in an AP/IB course. That puts a ridiculous 40% of the score weighted towards AP/IB courses. This is 4 times as much weight as SAT/ACT scores (10%) and almost twice the weight of 4 year graduation rate (25%) or college acceptance rate (25%).
The rankings completely ignore dual enrollment courses which are taken by advanced students at many high schools.
No one ranking list will give a good picture but the one cited for this article is a pretty useless list. It does seem to do a decent job of ranking Greenville County High Schools but I would say that might be coincidence as much as anything.....
The High School I attended in TN isn't even on the list despite being one of the top schools in TN. The reason is probably that Maryville High School only has kids take AP exams if they feel confident the student can pass the exam and receive credit. That suppresses the number of AP exams they give but has no impact on the actual quality of the school. That high school leads almost all the other TN schools that are on the list in graduation rate, college acceptance rate, SAT/ACT scores, and average score received on AP tests.
Funny you should mention TN schools. I attended 12 different schools to graduate high school. I was always a C/D student except when I attended TN schools, there I was an A/B student and it wasn't because I all of a sudden got smarter but I'll let ya'll debate this because I just can't wrap my head around all of the discussion centered around this. We are at Mauldin because we felt it was the better choice.
I agree with a lot of what you are saying but this methodology only gives 5% weight to being in an AP class - it gives 5x as much weight (25%) for taking the test regardless of the score and then an extra 10% based on the test score.
So if we think of 2 students:
Student #1 takes an AP class but doesn't take it seriously. Struggles, takes the test and does miserably. That student according to Newsweek is an example of a high performing high school (25% credit for taking test, 5% for being in an AP course).
Student #2 takes the same class but instead of AP takes it as dual enrollment with the community college. They take the course seriously, and get an "A" in both the high school class and in the college class that counts as transferable college credit. That student according to Newsweek is NOT an example of a high performing high school (0% for dual enrollment courses).
Student #2 will likely do better in college - the fact that Newsweek doesn't give them any weight for their dual enrollment course is something I find puzzling. The much higher weight to taking the AP test as opposed to taking an AP course or passing the AP exam is also puzzling to me. Just taking the test isn't much of a measure of school success.
well doing miserably on the test could be laziness, not caring about getting the college credit for whatever reason. I don't think you can say that student 1 will probably do worse in college than student 2 based on this data. Newsweek should give weight to dual enrollment course but that is another issue.
Depending on what you major in, AP credit in something like biology, physics, history, etc might not even be something you need to get your college degree. So many AP students are aware of this and choose not to study for the AP exam. I think that I was automatically placed in the AP courses by the school. I never committed to trying to pass the exam. but most people who took the AP classes did want to get the college credit so their first year load would be easier, that is something I should have considered more carefully.
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