FAQ: Best High Schools

10. Why do some states have so many schools on your list while others have so few?
The more schools I've examined, the more I've come to believe in the power of high-school cultures, which are differ around the country for reasons that often have little to do with the usual keys to high-school performance (i.e., the income and education of the parents.)

It's no surprise that California, New York, Texas and Florida lead the nation in number of schools on the list. But it is more difficult to explain why the much less populous Virginia and Maryland come right after those megastates in the number of challenging high schools, and why Iowa, with some of the highest test scores in the country, has only a handful of high schools that met the criteria.

My tentative explanation is that some areas have had the good fortune to get school boards and superintendents who see that they serve their students better by opening up AP, IB and Cambridge to those who want to work hard. Once a few districts in a state do that, others follow. And once a state has success, its neighboring states begin to wonder why they aren't doing the same.

11. Why limit your list to public high schools? Don't you think those of us who pay tens of thousands of dollars to educate their children at private schools are also interested in how our schools measures up? 
My children attended both public and private high schools, so I share your interest in rating both varieties. The public schools are very quick to give NEWSWEEK and The Washington Post the data we need. They are, after all, tax-supported institutions. The private schools, sadly, have resisted this and most other attempts to quantify what they are doing. The National Association of Independent Schools has even warned its members against cooperating with reporters like me who might be trying to help who they call consumer-conscious parents like you. They say that parents should reject such numerical comparisons and instead visit each private school to soak up its ambience. I am all for visits, but I think what those private schools are essentially saying is that parents like you and I are too stupid to read a list in a magazine or newspaper and reach our own sensible conclusions about its worth.

A few private schools have shared their data with me, but since the majority are resisting, any list of private schools would be too incomplete to be useful.  

12. Should I worry if my child's high school has dropped in rank since the last NEWSWEEK list?
No. Keep in mind, as I said before, that every school on the list is in the top five percent of all American high schools measured in this way. If you want to gauge your school's progress, look at its rating, not its ranking. Many schools drop in rank each year because there is so much more competition on the list, but at the same time improve their ratio of tests to graduating seniors. That means they are getting better, and the rank is even less significant. Also, almost all schools on the list drop in rank in the updated Web site version of the list a few weeks after it first appears in NEWSWEEK, because we add schools that get their data to us after the deadline.

I realize it is my fault that people put too much emphasis on the ranks. If I didn't rank, this would not happen. I was startled that people even remembered what their school's rank was in previous years. The important thing is that your school is on the list, not where on the list it is.

13. Don't students in some schools that have both IB and AP tests practice a form of double-dipping? I hear that many of the IB students take both the IB and the AP tests in the same subject. Doesn't that skew your index?
It would, but we look for it and subtract it from each school's total number of tests any AP tests taken by IB students who did not take a separate AP course in that subject. 

14. Why are you making such a big deal out of AP? I hear more and more selective colleges are saying they don't like the program and are raising the score for which they will grant course credit, and some high schools are dropping AP altogether. I've heard some people say the courses are either watered down so the schools can stuff more students in and look good on your index, or that they limit a teacher's ability to be creative.
There is a bit, but only a small bit, of truth in what you've heard. Many selective colleges are making it harder to get credit for taking AP, IB and Cambridge courses and tests in high schools, but their reasons for doing so are unclear. Former philosophy professor William Casement, who's analyzed this trend, says he thinks AP courses and tests are not as good as the introductory college courses and tests they were designed to substitute for, and that is why those colleges are pulling back. There is unfortunately almost no evidence to back up his theory. In fact, the colleges have done almost no research on the quality of their introductory courses, while the College Board has expert panels that regularly compare AP courses with college intro courses to make sure they are on the same level.

Some high-school educators think the colleges don't like to give AP credit because it costs them revenue. There is no evidence to support that theory either, but it is clear that selective college admissions offices, as opposed to their credit-granting departments, are very happy to see AP or IB courses on applicants' transcripts.