[Phys-l] Ratings of US High Schools - my two cents

[Boris Korsunsky <korsunskyb@mail.weston.org>]

Richard Hake wrote:

> Dennis Roberts (2006), in his post of 4 May 2006 to EvalTalk and 
> EdStat titled "Ratings of US High Schools" wrote [bracketed by lines 
> "RRRRRRR. . . ."; ellipses "..." in the original; slightly edited]:
>
> RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
> A Washington Post Education writer, Jay Mathews, came up with a system 
> that essentially does the following:
>
> HS Rating = (# of HS students in 2005 who have taken Advanced
> Placement or International Baccalaureate TESTS) / (# of graduating 
> seniors) ...
> This value is calculated ... then the ratings for 1000 HSchools are 
> shown.
>
> I would be interested in ANY discussion ANY of you have related to 
> this matter 

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Here is my $0.02:

Let us imagine that there is a competition "The most beautiful man in 
America" and the winner is determined by a sole criterion: height. A 
reasonable person may ask these questions, then:

- How can you possibly think that a single criterion determine the 
beauty of a person?
- Isn't the beauty in the eye of the beholder - in other words, 
inherently subjective?
- What is the purpose of this conext anyway? It seems demeaning to the 
participants and of no use to society at large. Shouldn't we just scrap 
it altogether?

IMHO, a reasonable person may ask exactly the same questions about the 
Newsweek rating system...

Boris Korsunsky