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Old 06-22-2011, 11:19 PM
 
Location: Chapel Hill, NC, formerly NoVA and Phila
9,775 posts, read 15,776,851 times
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America's Best High Schools - Newsweek

I know many of these lists are worthless. But surely, there is some good information in them. Not one high school in Fairfax County is in the top 500? I find it hard to believe. What happened to TJ? Langley? There are some Loudoun schools in there and several from Montgomery County. What gives? Did Fairfax forget to respond to the survey or something?
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Old 06-23-2011, 12:12 AM
 
1,295 posts, read 2,508,755 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by michgc View Post
America's Best High Schools - Newsweek

I know many of these lists are worthless. But surely, there is some good information in them. Not one high school in Fairfax County is in the top 500? I find it hard to believe. What happened to TJ? Langley? There are some Loudoun schools in there and several from Montgomery County. What gives? Did Fairfax forget to respond to the survey or something?
They may have taken themselves out of the running; I know that Thomas Jefferson H.S. removed itself from the US News annual list (too many magnet school brainiacs) for several years in a row, since it probably would've taken top honors every year.
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Old 06-23-2011, 04:45 AM
 
320 posts, read 711,316 times
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It is because Newsweek gave them a month notice to send all the info back. Jay Matthews commented on this in his column in the Washington Post. The info was requested a month ago during the "busiest" time of the year for most schools (preparations for testing, end of the school year stuff etc.). Lots of schools did not send the info back in time or didn't send it back at all. I am assuming that is why TJ as well as Stuyvesant is not on the list. Bronx Science is on the list so Stuyvesant should be too!
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Old 06-23-2011, 05:02 AM
 
2,462 posts, read 8,918,965 times
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Many of the schools on this list are magnet/special admission schools. Most of the others are regular schools located in affluent communities. So what you learn from reviewing this list is that schools in the position to enroll only motivated students from supportive families will have higher scores on every observable metric.
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Old 06-23-2011, 07:28 AM
 
Location: The Port City is rising.
8,868 posts, read 12,555,005 times
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Praise G-d, a list of top HS's without TJ on it. Now can we let the TJ kids just do their nerdy things without bugging them about being "number 1"?
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Old 06-23-2011, 08:49 AM
 
Location: Chapel Hill, NC, formerly NoVA and Phila
9,775 posts, read 15,776,851 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by claremarie View Post
Many of the schools on this list are magnet/special admission schools. Most of the others are regular schools located in affluent communities. So what you learn from reviewing this list is that schools in the position to enroll only motivated students from supportive families will have higher scores on every observable metric.
I understand the limitations of the list. I'm guessing that what others said must be true that Fairfax County didn't send in their information. Because FCPS's top "counterparts" in Montgomery County are all on the list - schools like Churchill, Whitman, BCC, Wootton, etc. I guess there are even more limitations on the list than I realized, if the "Top 500" isn't even from the pool of all schools.
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Old 06-23-2011, 09:06 AM
 
Location: Virginia
18,717 posts, read 31,070,580 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by michgc View Post
I understand the limitations of the list. I'm guessing that what others said must be true that Fairfax County didn't send in their information. Because FCPS's top "counterparts" in Montgomery County are all on the list - schools like Churchill, Whitman, BCC, Wootton, etc. I guess there are even more limitations on the list than I realized, if the "Top 500" isn't even from the pool of all schools.
Yup. When a list reflects nothing more than who returned a form, it becomes about as useful as those "Who's Who" books that promise to include your name if you send them $20.
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Old 06-23-2011, 09:21 AM
 
Location: Town of Herndon/DC Metro
2,825 posts, read 6,889,151 times
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I reviewed the 1st 7 pages and looked for HS that neighbored one of mine. Now I graduated HS 25 years ago but I would say the HS I'm familiar with are not better schools. They are equal or/and populated by white rich kids. So when you compare say, Torrey Pines and New Trier with FFX County schools such as Falls Church High School, add it the extra challenges FCHS has such as ESL/Free Lunch/Etc.. *plus* the excellent special needs programs within the regular FCHS population, FCHS, which was ranked in the 50"s by that WaPo writer and 198th by newsweek in 2009, is a fabulous/smart school that educates all kids: Viet-Central American-Bolivian-Black-white-Indian and Muslim.
Maybe everyone will stop knocking FCHS now
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Old 06-24-2011, 11:55 AM
 
Location: DMV
10,125 posts, read 13,979,004 times
Reputation: 3222
Quote:
Originally Posted by smithy77 View Post
They may have taken themselves out of the running; I know that Thomas Jefferson H.S. removed itself from the US News annual list (too many magnet school brainiacs) for several years in a row, since it probably would've taken top honors every year.
I thought they were taken off the list because the school is selective versus just a school that openly accept area students?
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Old 06-24-2011, 02:58 PM
 
153 posts, read 271,303 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Caladium View Post
Yup. When a list reflects nothing more than who returned a form, it becomes about as useful as those "Who's Who" books that promise to include your name if you send them $20.
Not to mention that the stats are all self-reported. I guess Newsweek laid off everybody capable of compiling the statistics themselves.
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