Lists can be arbitrary and easily disputed. Witness the national high school baseball rankings that placed state Super 8 champions North lower than Leominster, winner of the “rest of Division 1” tournament.
With that in mind, I had a look at Newsweek’s list ofTop 500 High Schools. Among the 23 Massachusetts schools on the list (led by #19 Lexington), North checked in at #263.
Newsweek tinkered with their methodology, which takes into account standardized test scores along with “college readiness,” so it’s hard to say how this compares with performance in any past rankings. In fact, the methodology is a bit dense, so any “For Dummies” recaps from smart folks is welcome in comments. It’s also hard to say where South ranks, as it did not get listed in the top 500. Curious (No Brookline or Wellesley, either, in case you like to engage in cross-border bragging battles).
Also of note: the magazine marked schools that it deemed to be closing the “achievement gap” – in which schools were judged on how low-income students performed within the study criteria. It even published a separate list based on those criteria, where North placed at 366.
So, congratulations to Newton, and to North, for making this new list. All such studies have their flaws and their prestige, and I’m interested to see opinions on both.
(Disclosure: I have a son currently enrolled at North)
They used basic public data to put together a group of about 4,000 good schools, and then sent them all surveys to collect the detailed data used to make the ranked list. Only 37% of the schools provided that data, so presumably, the other 63% weren’t even considered for entry in the “top 500.” I wonder if South, Brookline, or Wellesley provided their data.
THey asked the schools for data on: Enrollment Rate (25 percent), Graduation Rate (20 percent), Weighted AP/IB composite (17.5 percent), Weighted SAT/ACT composite (17.5 percent), Holding Power (change in student enrollment between ninth and 12th grades; this measure is intended to control for student attrition) (10 percent), and Counselor-to-Student Ratio (10 percent).
I’d like to offer my congratulations to the School Committee. They’ve taken Newton schools from the very top of the educational pyramid, and successfully guided the entire system all the way down to the middle of the pack. When’s the party?
I agree with Mike. Newton has dropped its innovative standards for creative education. The schools spend too much money on the bricks and mortar of its buildings and neglect the opportunity to create innovative programs.
I looked up various available information about many of the top schools. Most had fabulous and different offerings for the students.
Lexington Ma. high school #19 has an interesting set up whereby the community has an established structure a Senate. This allows for input into how the schools are run and policy formulated.
Here in Newton there is a less receptive climate for parents to really impact the curriculum of NPS.
Did anybody actually take a look at the detailed methodology that was employed by Newsweek’s silly Washington consultancy to come up with these rankings? Talk about charlatanism. Complete, arbitrary bunkum cloaked in a handful of nonsense, simplistic equations that pretend to be intellectually complex but would actually fit into a freshman high school algebra class.
Justin: “How much weight should we give to the number of guidance counselors at each school?”
Jane: “How about 7.35 percent? That makes it sound like we put a lot of thought into it.”
Justin: “But won’t people ask how we came up with the weight in our equations?”
Jane: “Of course not! We’ll just call it our ‘secret algorithm,’ and people will be in awe of us, the way they marvel at Google’s ‘secret algorithm.'”
Justin: “OK, sounds like a plan! What have we got to lose? Nobody takes Newsweek seriously these days anyway.”
There should be a clause in the contracts of both high school principals that they are obligated to complete the paperwork to be included in certain rankings. South was also noticeably absent from the U.S. News rankings. No excuse. An amateur’s look at the data says that South would have scored very high if only they had simply done the work necessary to participate. The just-released Boston Magazine rankings of high schools ranked South at 5, above Wellesley, Brookline, Needham, Brookline and other comparable communities. North came in at 26. There is a lot of community criticism about how our current Newton schools don’t live up to our system’s gloried past. I think that actual entry into these national evaluations would counter that sentiment. As our Newton kids apply to colleges that may not be aware of the reputation that we hold so dear, these rankings might mean something. They definitely have an impact on property values. Ask any broker. The School Committee and superintendent should mandate participation. North already seems to do so. South needs to take the ramifications of these rankings seriously and participate.
@KarenN: I strongly disagree. Newton schools should not be using paid staff to fill out entries in these BS beauty contests. If this is perceived as so important to property values then perhaps the local brokers should pool funds to hire someone to do this for the schools – although I’d rather see funding of something practical like science labs at South that are not considered substandard by the state.
Or, if it’s really so important to have a top 20 school in Newton, take two wings of South and rename those two wings “Newton Science Academy”. It’s a magnet school for all of Newton – have students take an entrance exam and apply to get in. It would have it’s own teachers and classes, but perhaps share athletic teams with the “rump” Newton South. Does this sound crazy? That’s exactly what the #8 school on the list is – a magnet school within a school, and the only ranked school in it’s district (used to live there and older child attended it).
College rankings have to be taken with a grain of salt, but ranking high schools like this is just ridiculous. Yes, there are good and bad high schools, but claiming that you can reliably distinguish the 50th and 500th best out of thousands of high schools is absurd.
By the way, “we” are currently going through the college application process and I can reassure you that college admissions officers far beyond New England are well aware of Newton South as a quality high school. They don’t rely on Newsweek/US News rankings. They rely on personal knowledge from visiting the schools and the “school profile” that most schools make available to colleges, if not the public.
You can see the South profile here: http://nshs.newton.k12.ma.us/sites/nshs.newton.k12.ma.us/files/user/6/docs/nshs/NSHSProfile2014.pdf
and the North profile here: http://nnhs.newton.k12.ma.us/School%20Profile_2014.pdf
Disappointing results!
Perfect methodology does not exist. This one sounds as reasonable as any out there.
For those who dismiss US News, I ask them for an alternative way of seeing how Newton schools are performing RELATIVE to others. In fact I asked this very question to the Superintendent 2 yrs ago – He tap danced around like you could not believe, and refused to engage when I reminded that he did not answer my question.
Lets add another asterix to Flieshman’s performance.
For the past year or so, I’ve had an enjoyable part time job as a relocation consultant for a company that’s been consistently rated as one of the top places to work in the Midwest. I help professionals from other countries who come here to work in corporations or universities learn about the area, find housing, get Social Security, bank accounts driver’s licences, car purchases, etc. Finding the right public school in the right community is another part of this job. I can’t recall just how many rating programs I’ve referenced for each elementary, middle and high school in each city or town, just that it;’s a lot. I’ve seen many that put North ahead of South and others that put South ahead of North. The only constant is that Newton schools always seem to be in the top 10 -15% of all the state’s school districts.