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Washington Post Ranks Two York Schools Among BestBy Amber Lester Kennedy Saturday, May 21, 2011 Two York County schools made the cut for The Washington Post’s “High School Challenge” that ranks the top 1,900 public high schools in the nation. York High School was ranked 389th in the country, and Tabb High was ranked 673rd. The two schools were among 20 in Hampton Roads that made the list, including 10 in Virginia Beach, four in Newport News, two in Norfolk, one in Chesapeake and one in Hampton. The Post’s education columnist Jay Mathews has ranked Washington-area public high schools since 1998 using “the Challenge Index,” his measure of how effectively a school prepares its students for college. In 2011, the Post expanded its research to the rest of the U.S. The Challenge Index formula divides the number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate or other college-level tests a school gave in 2010 by the number of graduating seniors. The Post concedes it’s not an effective measure of a school’s overall quality, but says it can “reveal the level of a high school’s commitment to preparing average students for college.” The rankings also note the percentage of a school’s students who qualify for free or reduced lunch and apply for that program. They also note the Equity and Excellence rate, the percentage of all seniors who have had at least one score on an AP, IB or Cambridge test that would qualify them for college credit. York achieved a 36.30 percent Equity and Excellence rate and 14 percent of its students qualify for free and reduced meals. Its students have an average SAT score of 1,617. Tabb achieved a 40.8 percent Equity and Excellence rate and 8 percent of its students qualify for federally subsidized meals. Its students have an average SAT score of 1,602. The top school in the nation, according to the index, is a Science and Engineering Magnet school in Dallas, Texas. The top-ranked Virginia school is H-B Woodlawn in Arlington, ranked at 46th in the country. See the full list and read further descriptions of the methodology here. |
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Comments
Interestingly, the rankings done by last year's SOLs (how well the students did on the tests - not how many students took the test) puts Jamestown (89th) ahead of York (116th). Jamestown also had nearly twice as many students passing at the 'advanced' level. (See schooldigger.co m, for example).
Next year WJCC has to pay for the AP exams. How much does WJCC have to spend on AP exams to make sure they 'make this list'? Obviously a lot more than the $125,000 that was spent this year on tests. (These tests are expensive!!!) If they pay enough, they could make sure they made the cutoff. But what a waste of money! Why insist students take the AP tests if they're not doing well in the class, and/or don't particularly want the AP credit? Obviously they insist so that they will do well on this ranking, but what a waste of money that could go to other aspects of educating our children.
Go WJCC!
@Shame sadly confirms my suspicions. We have lived here a number of years and now our child is entering kindergarten at Rawls Byrd Elem. Leadership of WJCC appears to be lacking, to say the least.
I was horrified by the lack of organization at kindergarten registration and did not think it was a great first impression.
I liked the classroom teachers and think our child will be fine with any of them, but the overall lack of organization (no tables to use to fill out forms, verbally giving new information while the parents are trying to focus on filling out forms, showing a video about reading - great topic - but this wasn't the time, saying school buses would be in the parking lot until 11 for children to explore - got out at 10:30 and not a single bus in sight,no forms on the web to download in advance, etc) was appalling and unprofessional.
For an event that happens EVERY SINGLE YEAR this needed to be better organized and run smoothly.
I am worried about WJCC schools.