It’s that time again. The Newsweek High School issue is out. School boards across America will have angry parents and residents waving the issue around as an example of what’s wrong with the particular school they live. I certainly saw it happen last year and the year before in Stamford.

Truth is, the list is a bit of a joke because it only ranks based on one criteria…

By dividing the number of AP and IB tests taken at a school by the number of graduating seniors, we can measure how committed the school is to helping kids take college-level courses.

No doubt that’s important. But a bit preposterous to think that it’s only value worth measuring. What about crime rate? What about music and art programs? What about Special Education results? What about the actual results of those tests instead of just measuring that the kid took the test? A lot of what makes a high school “best” are subjective and impossible to measure and rank on a list. What makes a high school “best” in the Northeast is very different than what makes one “best” in the Southeast.

The lead-in of the article talks about all the factors that make a high school “great” but then only ranks based on one measure.

And lest you think this is sour grapes, the high school my kids are slated to go to is on the list in the top 1,000.