Saturday, May 13, 2006

Congratulations Hickman High School...I think

Journal lists Hickman in high school ranking
Newsweek magazine has named Hickman High School as one of the top 1,000 school in the United States.

Hickman took the 971st spot. Public schools were ranked by a formula based on the number of advanced placement tests taken by all students in 2004 divided by the number of graduating seniors.

Newsweek named Jefferson County High School in Irondale, Ala., as the nation’s top school.
Well, I feel special having gone to the 971 best high school in the country. Too bad the rating is based on AP scores, and not any of the numerous other qualities that make a school good or bad. It seems to me that such things as graduation rate, teacher quality, Average GPA, number who go onto college, rates of violence, overall student satisfaction of the school would make for a better accurate rating.

1 comment:

gimlet said...

All of which shows that no one has any clue how to evaluate educational quality. Not educators, not academics, not government.

Standardized testing is probably the best available method, but plenty of people get bent out of shape about them. Probably nobody wants to admit that they work, and prove that increased funding doesn't do anything for educational quality, but does plenty for administrators and teachers' unions.

Give me school choice. The more I consider it, it's probably the best way to get parents to actually give a passing thought to their children's education.