Holy shit, I just realized how fucked up some of these schools are.

So the metric is based on number of IB/AP test taken over the number of students graduating.

In the last column, there's something called the "E&E."

Quote :

"E and E % stands for equity and excellence percentage: the portion of all graduating seniors at a school that had at least one passing grade on one AP or IB test."

And some of you were wondering how Dudley, an all-black high school (Guilford County loves segregation!) that might be shut down, could make the list of top high schools. Well, apparently they had a lot of kids taking AP tests...only 3.4 percent of their graduating class passed one though.

I don't know what to think about this. I think it's good to encourage all students to take these tests, but an even better idea involves actually preparing them for these tests. Otherwise, that's just fucked up.

5/25/2007 9:52:04 AM

^Do students still pay to take AP tests? That would suck if all these students are being encouraged to throw their money away like that.

5/25/2007 10:05:05 AM

^I thought about that, too. There are ways to get assistance for the tests, but I imagine most folks paid themselves.


Another factor here is the fact that the metric is number of AP/IB tests over number of graduating seniors. This rewards schools with poor graduation rates by not accounting for the students that failed and got failed by the school. Wake County has one of the highest graduation rates in the state, which is another reason why those schools are not represented well on this list.

People were like, what about Leesville, Green Hope, Apex, etc...?

Quote :

"WCPSS Compared to State The WCPSS graduation rate of 82.6 percent compares with the state average of 68.1 percent. The WCPSS graduation rate of 82.6 percent is higher than the state’s other large urban districts. The graduation rate is 74.6 percent for Mecklenburg; 73.7 percent for Forsyth; 68.8 percent for Durham; and 63.5 74.02 percent for Guilford. The rate is largely consistent with previous studies of the WCPSS graduation rate. The national education journal Education Week last year reported the Wake County Public School System had the second highest graduation rate among the nation’s 50 largest urban school districts, estimating it at 82 percent. An earlier study conducted by the WCPSS Evaluation and Research Department on the incoming ninth grade class in 1998-99 had calculated this rate to be approximately 80 percent for that cohort. Graduation Rates for 13 WCPSS Schools above 80 percent Three WCPSS high schools have rates above 90 percent. Leesville Road High had the highest graduation rate of WCPSS high schools at 90.6 percent. Green Hope High had a rate of 90.3 percent and Enloe High had a rate of 90.1 percent. Ten other WCPSS schools had graduation rates above 80 percent. Apex High and Southeast Raleigh High had graduation rates of 89.3 percent. Middle Creek High’s rate was 88.9 percent and Broughton High’s rate was 88.8 percent."

http://www.wcpss.net/news/2007_graduation_rate/

Their index in the Newsweek list is going to be lower because the number of graduating seniors is higher. Those extra graduating seniors may not have taken AP/IB tests, which makes the index lower, but at least they graduated.

(I revised Guilford County's rate because they revised it:
http://www.news-record.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070320/NEWSREC0101/703200307/-1/NEWSREC0201 )

[Edited on May 25, 2007 at 11:01 AM. Reason : sss]

5/25/2007 10:38:01 AM

Quote :

"And some of you were wondering how Dudley, an all-black high school (Guilford County loves segregation!) that might be shut down, could make the list of top high schools. Well, apparently they had a lot of kids taking AP tests...only 3.4 percent of their graduating class passed one though. I don't know what to think about this. I think it's good to encourage all students to take these tests, but an even better idea involves actually preparing them for these tests. Otherwise, that's just fucked up."

When I was there, we had to struggle to pull together an AP Physics class. I think we had eight, out of which only four really had a shot of passing. The other AP classes had about 10-20 people, but it was basically all academy kids.

It would be a shame to shut Dudley down. There are (or at least, there were) quite a few good teachers there. Plus, the school was redone very nicely - it's better looking than some college campuses. I wish it looked like that when I went there.

I noticed Smith didn't make the list - they must have really fucked up.

5/25/2007 12:52:31 PM

^I heard it was redone very nicely, that it looks like some futuristic school from a sci-fi movie.

But there's this reality that folks (particularly liberals) don't like to talk about. You cannot solve the education problem with more money. You can throw a billion dollars into Dudley, and a lot of those kids will still fail. We've tried to throw money at the problem, and it's not working.
I believe the keys to success in education are early intervention, choice in education, and socioeconomic integration:

1. Get to 'em young with public pre-schools. It makes them better prepared for school, and it takes some of the burden off the parents who struggle to pay for childcare.
2. Let the students have some choice in what they learn. It's unfair to force some kid into the college track only to have him fail...when all along, he may have had the makings of a world-class mechanic in him.
3. Socioeconomic integration is a must. When you overburden schools with tons of free and reduced price lunch students, the faculty ends up exhausted with so many poverty-related educational issues. Spread that burden out so the teachers and the kids actually have a chance.

[Edited on May 25, 2007 at 3:52 PM. Reason : sss]

5/25/2007 3:48:43 PM

Quote :

"Another factor here is the fact that the metric is number of AP/IB tests over number of graduating seniors. This rewards schools with poor graduation rates by not accounting for the students that failed and got failed by the school. Wake County has one of the highest graduation rates in the state, which is another reason why those schools are not represented well on this list. People were like, what about Leesville, Green Hope, Apex, etc...? "

That isn't necessarily a good thing. I'd like to see what the average GPA of graduating seniors is by county, or school in this case. Because more people graduating is only good if all these kids are doing so with the same or better grades. If it's a case of lower standards or less expectation, then it's hardly a good thing.

5/26/2007 2:41:46 AM

^I'm also curious about that.

And I'm curious about Guilford County's "middle collegs." Of the top 7 seven graduation rates in Guilford County, six of them are middle colleges. They brought up the rest of the county. I've read a little bit about them, and it says they are extremely small schools designed for problem students. I'm curious how they work, and if the students are graduating at the same expectations as students at "regular" schools.

5/26/2007 9:12:48 PM

Quote :

"^What? No way, Mt Tabor is crap, RJR is way better. I used to work for Winston/Salem Forsyth Co Schools and if we ever got in trouble, they would send us to Mt Tabor as punishment lol "

first of all, you're a fucking idiot

second of all, since forsyth county has the career center, how can one school be rated above another based on the metric they used?

5/26/2007 10:41:15 PM