FAQ: Best High Schools

4. Why do you divide by the number of graduating seniors, and does that mean you only count tests taken by seniors? Don't you know that juniors, and sometimes even sophomores and freshmen take AP tests?
We divide May and June graduates as a convenient way to measure the relative size of each school. That way a big school like Coral Reef High in Miami, which gave 3,562 AP or IB tests and graduated 646 seniors in 2007 for a rating of  5.514 this year, will not have an advantage over North Hills Preparatory in Irving, Tex., which gave only 395 AP or IB tests but also graduated only 71 seniors for a rating of 5.563. On the 2008 NEWSWEEK list they are right next to each other at numbers 18 and 19.

We count all tests taken at the school, not just those taken by seniors.

5. How can you call these the best or top schools if you are only using one narrow measure? High school is more than just AP or IB tests.
Indeed it is, and if I could quantify all those other things in a meaningful way, I would. But teacher quality, extracurricular activities and other important factors are too subjective for a ranked list. Participation in challenging courses and tests, on the other hand, can be counted, and the results expose a significant failing in most high schools--so far only five percent of the public high schools in the United States qualify for the NEWSWEEK list. I think that this is the most useful quantitative measure of a high school, and one of its strengths is the narrowness of the criteria. Everyone can understand the simple arithmetic that produces a school's Challenge Index rating and discuss it intelligently, as opposed to ranked lists like U.S. News & World Report's "America's Best Colleges," which has too many factors for me to comprehend. 

As for the words "top" and "best," they are always based on criteria chosen by the list maker. My list of best film directors may depend on Academy Award nominations. Yours may be based on ticket sales. I have been very clear about what I am measuring in these schools. You may not like my criteria, but I have not found anyone who understands how high schools work and does not think AP, IB or Cambridge test participation is important. I often ask people what quantitative measure of high schools they think is more important than this one. Such discussions can be interesting and productive.

I have been having such a debate with Andy Rotherham, co-director of the Education Sector think tank. He argues that some of the schools on the NEWSWEEK list have low average test scores and high dropout rates, and do not below belong on any best high-schools list. My response is that these are all schools with lots of low income students and great teachers who have found ways to get them involved in college level courses. So far, we have no proven way for educators in low income schools to improve significantly their average tests scores or graduation rates. Until we do, I don't see any point in making them play a game that, no matter how energetic or smart they are, they can't win.

6. Why don't I see famous public high schools like Stuyvesant in New York City or Thomas Jefferson in Fairfax County, Va., on the NEWSWEEK list?
We do not include magnet or charter high schools that draw high concentrations of top students whose average SAT or ACT scores significantly exceed the highest average for any normal enrollment school in the country. This year that meant such schools had to have an average SAT score below 1300 on the reading and math sections, or an average ACT score below 29, to be included on the list.

The schools you name are terrific places with some of the highest average test scores in the country, but it would be deceptive for us to put them on this list. The Challenge Index is designed to honor schools that have done the best job in persuading average students to take college level courses and tests. It does not work with schools that have no, or almost no, average students. The idea is to create a list that measures how good schools are in challenging all students, and not just how high their students' test scores are. The high-performing schools we have excluded from the list all have great teachers, but research indicates that high SAT and ACT averages are much more an indication of the affluence of the students' parents.

Using average SAT or ACT scores is a change from the previous system we used, which excluded schools that admitted more than half of their students based on grades and test scores. That system penalized some inner city magnet schools that had high Challenge Index ratings but whose average SAT or ACT scores were below those of many normal enrollment suburban schools, so we switched to a system that we consider more fair and clear.

On our Public Elites' list, however, we do acknowledge schools that did not make the big list because their average SAT or ACT scores were too high.

7. Aren't all the schools on the list doing very well with AP or IB? So why rank them and make some feel badly that they are on the lower end of the scale?
This is an important point. These are all exceptional schools. Every one is in the top five percent  of American high schools measured this way. They have all shown remarkable AP and IB strength. I am mildly ashamed of my reason for ranking, but I do it anyway. I want people to pay attention to this issue, because I think it is vitally important for the improvement of American high schools. Like most journalists, I learned long ago that we humans are tribal primates with a deep commitment to pecking orders. We cannot resist looking at ranked lists. It doesn't matter what it is--SUVs, ice cream stores, football teams, fertilizer dispensers. We want to see who is on top and who is not. So I rank to get attention, with the hope that people will argue about the list, and in the process, think about the other issues it raises.

8. Is it not true that school districts who pay the AP or IB exam fees for their students skew the results of your Challenge Index?  Shouldn't an asterisk be attached to schools in districts that do that? 
If I thought that those districts who pay for the test, and require that students take it, were somehow giving themselves an unfair advantage to make their programs look stronger, I would add that asterisk or discount them in some way. But I think the opposite is true. Districts who spend money to increase the likelihood that their students take AP or IB tests are adding value to the education of their students. Taking the test is good. It gives students a necessary taste of what college demands. It's bad that many students in AP courses avoid taking the tests just because they prefer to spend May of their senior year sunning themselves on the beach or buying their prom garb. (Since AP and IB tests must be graded by human beings, the results arrive long after June report cards, so they usually do not count as part of the class grade and most schools allow students to skip the AP test if they wish. IB is organized differently, and few IB students miss those exams.)

If paying test fees persuades students, forcing them to take the test, that's just as good as if a school spent money to hire more AP teachers, or if the school made it difficult for students to drop out of AP without a good reason. I was happy when the state of Arkansas and most districts in Northern Virginia began to pay the test fees and require that the tests be taken. I hope many other districts follow suit.

9. Why don't you count the college exams that high-school students take at local colleges?
I would like to, but NEWSWEEK has tried to count what are often called dual enrollment exams (those given to high-school students who have taken local college courses) and it proved to be too difficult. The problem is that we want to make sure that the dual enrollment final exams are comparable to the AP, IB and Cambridge exams that define the index. We tried to set a standard--we would only count dual enrollment final exams that were at least two hours long and had some free response questions that required thought and analysis, just as the AP, IB and Cambridge exams do. And we wanted to be sure that the exams were written and scored by people who were not employed by the high school so that, like AP, IB and Cambridge exams, they could not be dumbed down to make the school or the teacher look good. Some high schools provided us with the necessary information, but most could not. It was too difficult for them to persuade the colleges managing the exams to help them, or they did not have the staff to gather the data we required. We did not want to be counting extra exams only from those schools that could afford extra staff, so we decided to stay with AP, IB and Cambridge, while we thought about better ways to count dual enrollment.