A top-100 list roils high schools

The top 100 public schools are listed in the magazine's print edition, and the website includes the top 1,000. Newsweek first published this list in 1998.

As he explains on the website, Mathews chose this measure because he believes AP and IB courses are rigorous and prepare students for the shock of tougher, college-level work before they graduate. At least it's a more creative measure of schools than simple reliance on standardized test results, say some supporters.

"When so much of our attention is focused on proficiency in terms of [the 2001 federal education law] No Child Left Behind and graduation rates, [The Best High Schools ranking is] forcing people to focus energy on some measure of excellence," says Frederick Hess, director of education policy at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C.

But others question the use of the AP or IB test as the sole indicators, suggesting instead that they should be one of many measures.

At the 4,000-student New Trier Township High School in Winnetka, Ill., 93 percent of students go on to four-year colleges after graduation. Despite the school's impressive performance, it did not make Newsweek's top 100 list. (New Trier weighed in at 293.)

Hank Bangser, superintendent of the New Trier district, is critical of school rankings in general but particularly disapproves of using AP tests because he believes it discriminates against schools with large student bodies and a diverse curriculum.

Many students at New Trier, Mr. Bangser says, might qualify to take AP courses but opt instead to take special courses in subjects like dance or computers. At smaller schools, with fewer choices, the same students might enroll in AP because they lack alternatives.

"Any person working in education knows that there is no single criterion that conveys institutional excellence," Bangser says.

Yet even educators who understand such limits can fall prey to the desire to see their schools score higher - and that pressure can have its dangers, warn some list critics.

One problem with the Newsweek ranking is the danger that it "creates perverse incentives to offer AP," says Mr. Hess of the American Enterprise Institute. "It's easy to imagine districts and schools getting caught up in gamesmanship," he says.

As they compete to offer more AP courses without concern for how they're being taught, says Hess, it could "dilute" the quality of instruction and the significance of college-level courses in high school.

Others object to the list on broader grounds.

If possible, says Jon Reider, director of college counseling at the private San Francisco University High School in California, "the ranking of high school is even more foolish" than ranking colleges.

"Most people go to high school ... within a very limited geographic area," says Mr. Reider. "So what is the point?"

"It's pandering to the American obsession with good, better, best," continues the former admissions officer at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif.

As a private school, Reider's University High isn't even in contention for a slot on the list. But Reider doesn't mind. "We just think it's distracting. It's silly."

• Robert Tuttle in New York contributed to this report.

Page: 1 | 2