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These lists by US World & News are a joke, IMO. First, they are using 2010-2011 results for a 2013 list. That would be fine by itself, but the methodology is actually biased to favor certain schools.
Have you looked at the methodology they use? Schools have to go through 2 steps showing that their share of "economically disadvantaged" and minority students are performing better than state average. So that right there knocks out a ton of 'majority-white' LI School districts. Race and economically disadvantaged students has very little to do with school quality.
Then they look at AP/IB participation rate weighted 25% in the CRI. All that does is encourage school admin to plop as many kids as possible into them so they could make it onto these lists. I saw one school in NC with a 62% participation rate but only an 8% pass rate, 60% proficient in Math/Eng, ranked near the top 1000 . How ridiculous is that?
Also, it's difficult to compare schools at the national level. Only way to really do that is grad rates maybe, or SATs. Even the SATs are not a great measure because of how that data can be skewed (ie- lower participation rate, "cherry picking" could lead to higher school averages).
If you want a good measure of LI School district quality and how we compare to NYS, you will not find a more objective and comprehensive list than this:
I agree and I've seen your list before and prefer the methodology you use, it definitely is a more complete and definitive list to me. Will you be doing a 2013 list soon, looks like you posted the 2012 around the same time last year. =)
when I went to the wiki pages of those top schools and browse the "Notable alumni" section, I did not find many impressive names. Where are those big names graduating?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jerron
when I went to the wiki pages of those top schools and browse the "Notable alumni" section, I did not find many impressive names. Where are those big names graduating?
I found it a bit weird a school (Manhattan Bridges if I recall) was listed 40 something'th in the state and was below state average in english AND math and was 50+% in college readiness. Far below others with similar rankings. Made no sense at all. How can they rank higher for college readiness and yet be below average in Math and English?!
Yeah, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Like twingles mentioned, they have to be prejudiced to not mistakenly appear prejudiced.
I'd also go a step further and say that a lot of the data looks flat out wrong. I'm not looking to pick on any of the schools on that list but Bay Shore seems way out of place, South Huntington and VS South seems a little high to me. I looked up NY Report Card stats for the proficiency rates US World News is displaying:
Bay Shore, ranked 20th best school on LI:
USNews lists them at
Proficient in English 97%
Proficient in Math 95%
South Huntington
USNews lists at:
Eng 98%
Math 96%
NY Report Card:
Eng 96%
Math 93%
Doesn't make any sense. That invalidates the whole list (even if most of them look accurate).
Quote:
Originally Posted by breetai3
I agree and I've seen your list before and prefer the methodology you use, it definitely is a more complete and definitive list to me. Will you be doing a 2013 list soon, looks like you posted the 2012 around the same time last year. =)
Sure, I can do it again in the same format as soon as the 2011-2012 test scores are made available.
You made a good point earlier that the AP/IB participation/pass rate does have some value, that's true. But a question that might come up is are schools watering down the value of APs by loading as many kids as possible into them solely to make it on these lists? I think it's good to push kids to as far as their academic limit will take them, but others think the real cream of the crop students will suffer. I'm not really sure on that.
I think from all the data points in the LI only list, the best single measure of college readiness is 'Regents Diploma with Advanced Designation %'. Anyone can look these up at nystart.gov report cards under the district's Comprehensive Information Report.
Personally I think if kids want to take an AP class, it should be up to them and the prior year's subject teacher. That's how it was when I was a kid. And no, we didn't always have the smartest kids in the school in my AP English class, BUT they enjoyed reading and writing and discussing novels and such. That's what it's about. The top 2 students in my class who went on to Harvard and Princeton were math/science people and didn't take any AP English or Social Studies but they did for the science and math. Same for one of my friends who went on to be a doctor.
Again, we've swayed so far in this country to thinking everyone is potential Ivy League material or even college material, that it is ridiculous. Good luck to all of us finding an electrician in 20 years who doesn't charge $200, which he'll be able to do because he's the only guy in the county who went to trade school!
Personally I think if kids want to take an AP class, it should be up to them and the prior year's subject teacher. That's how it was when I was a kid. And no, we didn't always have the smartest kids in the school in my AP English class, BUT they enjoyed reading and writing and discussing novels and such. That's what it's about. The top 2 students in my class who went on to Harvard and Princeton were math/science people and didn't take any AP English or Social Studies but they did for the science and math. Same for one of my friends who went on to be a doctor.
Again, we've swayed so far in this country to thinking everyone is potential Ivy League material or even college material, that it is ridiculous. Good luck to all of us finding an electrician in 20 years who doesn't charge $200, which he'll be able to do because he's the only guy in the county who went to trade school!
I'm surprised Commack is that high. Nothing against them or anything..
When I went to Suffolk Community College not too long ago, there were TONS of Commack kids.
Nothing wrong with Community College (i'm a CC grad who continued on) but usually when a district produces such a massive abundance of students attending a CC then it's status as a top school system is questionable..
Last edited by Guidance100; 04-24-2013 at 02:11 PM..
I'm surprised Commack is that high. Nothing against them or anything..
When I went to Suffolk County Community College not too long ago, there were TONS of Commack kids.
Nothing wrong with Community College (i'm a CC grad who continued on) but usually when a district produces such a massive abundance of students attending a 2 year college, its questionable..
eh, they could have been from the lower third of the graduating class, which in other districts wouldn't be attending college at all.
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. How ridiculous is that?
