Tangent!
Quote:
Originally posted by DeltAlum
The list(s) are great morale builders for the schools involved -- but what about the other really good high schools that don't make the list? It is said -- with no documentation that I've seen -- the the school system we live in is "one of the top ten in the nation." And, in fact, two of the five (soon to be six) high schools in the district were on "the list." But, frankly, there is very little difference between the five schools. What this kind of thing does do, though, is give certain of the students at the other three schools a real complex of not measuring up. Which makes the motivated work harder, and the less motivated to give up -- leaving those in the middle not knowing or not caring what to do.
And one school in the Denver district, which is generally believed to be the second best school in the state didn't make the list at all -- while several other schools from other districts did.
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I agree. I'm sorry, but judging by AP/IB scores alone -- like this list does -- is not going to give an accurate impression of how good a school is. I looked through the list for schools that I'm familiar with (mostly those in Wisconsin/Minnesota). The highest listed Wisconsin school on the list would, by almost anyone's standards, not be considered the best public high school in Wisconsin. Some of the others listed are very good schools; others are just mediocre. Out of the four public high schools in my city, one was listed, despite the fact that most people in Madison agree that that school is second to another one of the public high schools.
There's really no rhyme or reason to this list, and in order to effectively measure how good a high school is you'd have to measure far more than AP scores. And then of course, there are the intangibles that can't be measured in test scores, GPAs or number of football championships won.