The Top 100 High Schools in America

This week, Newsweek magazine released its annual list of what it claims are the top 100 high schools in America.  These rankings are determined by dividing the total number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, and Cambridge tests taken by all students at a school in 2006 by the number of graduating seniors at that same school.

You could argue that this ranking system favors rich schools, magnet schools, or special gifted & talented schools, and indeed many of the schools near the top of the list have names like “Academic Magnet High School” and “Science/Engineering Magnet School,” although some surprising schools from higher-poverty areas made the list as well.  But that’s a debate for a different post.

Here’s the thing that struck me about the list of these 100 high-achieving schools:  21 of them failed to make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in 2006 according to No Child Left Behind.

Let that sink in for a minute: 21% of the very best schools in America failed to make AYP. 

Let’s compare that to the general population: for the 2005-2006 school year, a total of just 25.8% of all public schools failed to make AYP. 

If the highest-achieving high schools in America fail to make AYP at nearly the same rate as everyone else, can we finally all agree that AYP, as it is currently measured, is meaningless?

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