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

["John M Clement" <clement@hal-pc.org>]

I think one will find that IB and AP courses correlate strongly with 
the SES of the students, so basically wealthy schools will be rated 
highly.  A recent rating found that using test scores and factoring 
out SES, private schools actually are not as good as public schools on 
the average.  So yes, one measurement alone is suspect.  My children 
went to a highly rated school, and the quality of teaching was not 
that high, so I can speak with some conviction that IB and AP are not 
the best indicators, especially when used alone.

But Americans like to have a single indicator rating system.  This 
very much plays into the American mindset.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX



> > 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 
>
> RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
> 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...