- What is the Best High Schools project and why did U.S.News World Report create this rankings?
 - Was every public high school in the United States eligible to be evaluated as part of the rankings?
 - Why were private schools not ranked as part of the Best High Schools rankings?
 - What were the sources of information that U.S. News used to calculate the 2012 Best High Schools rankings?
 - What methodology was used to calculate the 2012 Best High Schools rankings? What role did the American Institutes for Research play in these rankings?
 - How were schools evaluated using the three-step process? What data and/or indicators were used to identify the high schools?
 - What distinguishes a gold medal high school from a silver or bronze medal school?
 - Were there changes to the methodology used in the 2012 Best High Schools rankings?
 - Why did U.S. News not have the honorable mention category in the 2012 Best High Schools rankings?
 - Why did some schools’ rankings change in the 2012 Best High Schools rankings when compared to the last rankings published in December 2009?
 - How were the new 2012 Best High Schools rankings in each state and the Best Magnet and Best Charter Schools rankings calculated?
 - Why is a school not listed or not ranked in the U.S. News 2012 Best High Schools rankings?
 - Why did U.S. News list a school’s AP or IB data even if that school did not win a gold or silver medal?
 - How did U.S. News decide if a school was a charter or magnet school? Where did descriptive information about the school come from?
 - Why did one school in the same county rank lower on the U.S. News 2012 Best High Schools rankings than another school in the same county that it outperforms on the state tests in terms of the absolute level of results?
 - Do the Best High Schools receive a reward?
 - Whom should I contact if I have questions about the data, the current rankings, or the rankings methodology?
 - Whom should I contact if I have questions about my school’s historical rank in the Best High Schools rankings?
1. What is the Best High Schools project and why did U.S.News World Report create these rankings?Â
The Best High Schools project identifies the country's top-performing public high schools. The goal is to provide a clear, unbiased picture of how well public schools serve all of their studentsâ€"from the highest achieving to the lowest achievingâ€"in preparing them to demonstrate proficiency in basic skills as well as readiness for college-level work.
The first-ever list of the U.S. News Best High Schools was posted online on November 30, 2007. The next edition was posted online on December 5, 2008, and the last edition was posted online on December 10, 2009. The current, 2012 edition was published online on May 8, 2012.
Since U.S.News World Report editors believe high schools are among America's most important institutions, adding the Best High Schools to its series was a natural progression. Education drives our country's future. Recognizing schools that are performing well and providing them as models to other schools will inspire educators and communities to do better.
Also, by sharing this information, parents across the country will be armed with information to help them make better-informed decisions about their child's education.
The 2012 Best High Schools rankings do not have an accompanying print guidebook; however the rankings and data may be used in future U.S. News publications.
[Back to Top]
2. Was every public high school in the United States eligible to be evaluated as part of the rankings?
Yes, all public high schools were eligible and nearly all were evaluated in the process of calculating the rankings. The U.S. News Best High Schools methodology collected state test data from state departments of education.
We analyzed 21,776 public high schools in 49 states and the District of Columbia. This is the total number of public high schools that had 12th-grade enrollment and sufficient data, primarily from the 2009-2010 school year, to analyze. (Nebraska was the only state that did not report enough data and therefore was not evaluated for any part of the rankings. None of the high schools in Nebraska are listed on usnews.com.)
[Back to Top]
3. Why were private schools not ranked as part of the Best High Schools rankings?
In almost all cases, students at private schools are not required to take the statewide accountability tests that are mandatory for U.S. public high schools. Since private schools do not have the state testing data that U.S. News uses for the methodology of the Best High Schools rankings, they are not included in the 2012 rankings.
[Back to Top]
4. What were the sources of information that U.S. News used to calculate the 2012 Best High Schools rankings?
There are a number of data sources used to produce the Best High Schools rankings:
• The Common Core of Data is the U.S. Department of Education's website, updated annually, which contains basic data on enrollment, ethnicity, and other profile information on all public high schools in the United States. The U.S. Department of Education collects the data found on this site directly from the schools themselves, school districts, or state departments of education. The data used in the rankings is for the 2009-2010 school year.
• College Board was the source of the Advanced Placement test data for each public high school, when applicable, that was used to create calculated values used in the rankings. The AP test data used in the analysis is for 12th-grade students in the 2009-2010 school year.
• International Baccalaureate was the source of the International Baccalaureate test data for each public high school, when applicable, that was used to create calculated values used in the rankings. The IB test data used in the analysis is for 12th-grade students in the 2009-2010 school year.
• Each high school's statewide accountability "proficiency" test results were collected directly from official sources in that state. The statewide assessment test data is from the 2009-2010 school year, except for Wyoming, which uses the 2008-2009 school year data.
[Back to Top]
5. What methodology was used to calculate the 2012 Best High Schools rankings? What role did the American Institutes for Research play in these rankings?
The methodology for identifying the Best High Schools was developed with a core principle in mindâ€"that the best schools must serve all students well and must produce measurable academic outcomes that support this mission.
To produce the 2012 Best High Schools rankings, which are available online only, U.S. News teamed up with the Washington, D.C.-based American Institutes for Research (AIR), one of the largest behavioral and social science research organizations in the world.
AIR implemented U.S. News's comprehensive rankings methodology, which reflects how well high schools serve all of their students, not just those who are planning to go to college. According to the U.S. News Best High Schools methodology, a Best High School is one that succeeds at the following.
• Step 1: Attains performance levels that exceed statistical expectations given the school's relative level of student poverty, as measured by state accountability test scores for all the school's students in the core subjects of reading and math.
• Step 2: Achieves proficiency rates on state tests for their least advantaged student groups (e.g., black, Hispanic, and economically disadvantaged students) that exceed state averages.
• Step 3: Prepares its students for college, as measured by student participation in and performance on Advanced Placement (AP) exams or International Baccalaureate (IB) exams.
Any individual AP or IB subject test was considered when determining if a student took or passed at least one test. The test that was taken by the most students at a particular schoolâ€"either AP or IBâ€"was used to calculate that school's college readiness index (CRI), which measures the degree to which students are exposed to and master some college-level material while in high school.
There were 26 high schools that achieved the maximum 100.0 CRI. In addition, there were instances in which gold or silver medal schools were tied based on their unrounded CRI values. (These values, when published online as part of the Best High Schools rankings, are rounded to one decimal place.)
To avoid having ties in the numerical rankings, the primary tiebreaker, which measures the absolute level of success in passing AP or IB tests, was the unrounded quality-adjusted exams per test taker (the number of exams that received passing scores divided by the number of students who took and passed at least one exam). This was used as the first tiebreaker since U.S. News weights performance on the AP and IB tests three times higher than the simple AP or IB test participation rate.
If necessary, a second tiebreaker used was exams per test taker, which was the average number of AP and/or IB exams passed per test taker (the total exams taken divided by the number of test takers).
All tiebreakers used were unrounded values carried out to many decimal places.
For more information, see the short version of the U.S. News Best High Schools rankings methodology or the much longer and more detailed technical appendix produced by AIR.
[Back to Top]
6. How were schools evaluated using the three-step process? What data and/or indicators were used to identify the high schools?
Analysts from AIR, who implemented U.S. News's comprehensive rankings methodology, used several indicators to determine which schools met the three-step tiered criteria as outlined in the methodology. These indicators include:
• Step 1: Overall performance of students on state tests
Performance index for each high school (all students)
An index that measures the mastery of state tests, with full credit awarded to proficient scores, additional credit awarded to more advanced scores, and partial credit awarded to scores approaching proficient. This performance index was computed for each high school based on student performance on 2009â€"2010 state reading and mathematics assessments.
Economically disadvantaged students as a percent of total enrollment
A measure of student poverty, which is typically the percent of a school's total enrollment receiving free or reduced-price lunch. This used federal data from the U.S. Department of Education's website.
Risk-adjusted performance index
Each high school's residual measured the degree to which a high school differed from its statistically expected performance on reading and mathematics assessments, given the proportion of economically disadvantaged students.
High schools with risk-adjusted performance index values at or above the upper threshold of the performance zone of one-half of a standard deviation were considered performing beyond expectations, according to U.S. News, and advanced to Step 2.
• Step 2: Identify high schools that performed better than the state average for their least advantaged students
Combined reading and mathematics proficiency rate for disadvantaged student subgroups for each high school
Reading and mathematics proficiency rate is a weighted average of the percentage of students for each group at or above the proficient level.
State average combined reading and mathematics proficiency rate for disadvantaged student subgroups
A weighted state average for the disadvantaged student subgroups was calculated using student subgroup performance across all high schools in the state.
Disadvantaged students performance gap differential
The differential between a school's disadvantaged student performance index and the state average for that index. Only values greater than zero meet the criteria for selection.
Values greater than zero indicated that a high school's disadvantaged student subgroups outperformed the state average. Values lower than or equal to zero meant that a high school's disadvantaged student subgroups performed no better or worse than the state average.
High schools that do as well as or better than the state average
High schools with disadvantaged student subgroups that performed as well as or better than the state average advanced to Step 3. That is, all high schools that had a value of 0 or higher for the disadvantaged student proficiency gap differential passed Step 2.
As with earlier versions of the Best High Schools rankings, high schools that passed Step 1 and did not have disadvantaged student subgroups automatically moved to Step 3.
• Step 3: Performance on college-level Advanced Placement (AP) exams or International Baccalaureate (IB) exams to determine medal winners
AP or IB participation percent
The percentage of 12th graders in 2009-2010 that took at least one AP or IB exam at some point during high school (number of students AP or IB tested divided by number of 12th graders enrolled).
Quality-adjusted AP or IB participation percent
The percentage of 12th graders in 2009-2010 that took and passed at least one AP or IB exam at some point during high school (number of students tested that received at least one score of 3 or higher on an AP test or 4 or higher on an IB test divided by number of 12th graders enrolled).
College readiness index (CRI) to determine gold, silver, and bronze medal winners
An unrounded index to many decimal places (presented at one decimal place in the published rankings online) that measures the degree to which a school's students are exposed to, and master, some college-level material (a weighted average of AP or IB participation, weighted at 25 percent of the CRI, and the quality-adjusted AP or IB participation rate, weighted at 75 percent of the CRI). Only CRI values greater than 16.3 meet the criteria for selection.
Gold medal high schools are simply the top 500 high schools that met this criteria; the schools ranked 501 through 2,008â€"the silver medal schoolsâ€"also met this criteria. An additional 2,869 high schools that passed the first two steps in the methodology were awarded bronze medals and are listed alphabetically.
Quality-adjusted exams per test taker
A quality-adjusted version of the above indicator, focusing solely on the number of AP or IB exams that receive passing scores and the students that took them.
It's calculated by taking the total number of AP or IB exams scoring 3 or above on AP or 4 or above on IB divided by the number of students scoring 3 or above on at least one AP exam or 4 or above on at least one IB exam). An unrounded version of this was used in order to break ties (which mainly occur at the very top of the list, with CRIs of 100).
Exams per test taker
A measure of the depth of AP or IB participation (the degree to which a school's students are exposed to more than one AP or IB subject), provided for additional context (the total number of AP or IB exams taken divided by the number of test takers equals the average number of exams per test taker). This was a secondary tiebreaker in a few cases.
For more information, see the short version of the U.S. News Best High Schools rankings methodology or the much longer and more detailed technical appendix produced by AIR.
[Back to Top]
7. What distinguishes a gold medal high school from a silver or bronze medal school?
There are three levels of medal award winners. In total, U.S. News nationally ranked the 4,877 highest-scoring schools as gold, silver, or bronze in the 2012 rankings.
• The first two levels include the top-performing high schools (gold and silver distinctions), which are schools that met all three criteria outlined above. These schools have been subdivided into gold and silver groups based on their college readiness index (CRI), which measures the degree to which students are exposed to and master some college-level material while in high school.
• The third level includes schools that met state test performance criteria, but have not yet demonstrated high levels of measurable college readiness or don't offer AP or IB programs (bronze distinction).
The gold medal high schools are the top 500 high schools in the country, ranked numerically according to their unrounded CRI values.
The next group of high schools with the highest unrounded college readiness indexes greater than or equal to 16.3 were numerically ranked from No. 501 through No. 2,008 and were the silver medal winners.
Only schools that had CRI values at or above 16.3, calculated on an unrounded basis to many decimal places, scored high enough to meet the criteria for gold and silver medal selection. The minimum of 16.3 was used because it's the median (the statistical midpoint) of all the CRI values among all high schools with AP or IB test takers.
The maximum college readiness index value is 100.0, which means that every 12th-grade student during the 2009-2010 academic year in a particular school took and passed at least one AP or IB test before or during their senior year.
To summarize, in order to win a gold or silver medal and be numerically ranked, a high school had to pass Steps 1 and 2 used in the methodology and have a college readiness index at or above the median benchmark.
An additional 2,869 high schools that passed the first two steps in the methodology were awarded bronze medals and are listed alphabetically. A bronze medal school either does not offer any AP or IB courses, or its CRI was less than the median of 16.3 needed to be ranked silver.
Basically, a bronze medal high school did not meet the requirements of Step 3 in the methodology. These schools have demonstrated commendable performance on state tests, but did not perform well enough on the college readiness index to merit identification as a top-performing high school. Either they have not provided as much access or any access to college-level AP or IB coursework as their top-performing peers, or they offer an alternative program to AP or IB.
While AP and IB are the two most well known college-level programs in the country, there are schools that focus on providing students with access to alternative college-level programs, typically in the form of dual enrollment at local community colleges.
At present, there is no uniform set of data collected about participation in such programs. In addition, researchers have found that the quality of such existing programs varies significantly from school to school.
[Back to Top]
8. Were there changes to the methodology used in the 2012 Best High Schools rankings?
U.S. News made three key changes in the 2012 Best High Schools rankings methodology compared to the last edition published in December 2009.
• Larger proportion of medal-winning schools: We increased the number of schools that passed Steps 1 and 2â€"and therefore were awarded either gold, silver, or bronze medalsâ€"to 28.9 percent of all the schools eligible to be analyzed for the rankings, compared to 9.3 percent of the eligible schools in the 2009 rankings.
This was done by changing the relative level of performance a school had to achieve to pass Step 1 (relative to the other high schools in its state). In technical statistical terms, this means that in the 2012 rankings, a high school needed to perform at or above +.5 standard deviation above the mean to pass Step 1, compared to needing to be at or above +1.0 standard deviation above the mean in the 2009 rankings.
• More numerically ranked schools: We increased the number of schools that were numerically ranked to the top 2,008 schoolsâ€"all the gold and silver medal winners. In the previous rankings, only the top 100 gold schools were numerically ranked.
• Lower college readiness threshold to decide medal status: In Step 3 of the rankings, we used achieving at or above the median college readiness index of 16.3 (unrounded) as the basis to determine the cutoff for schools to be ranked with a gold, silver, or bronze medal. In the previous rankings, we used a college readiness index of 20.0 in Step 3 to determine the cutoff for obtaining a gold, silver, or bronze medal.
The result of all these changes is that nearly three times more high schools were ranked as gold, silver, or bronze in the 2012 rankings compared to 2009. However, a high school still needed to be among the top performers in its state and on the national level to be a ranked school.
[Back to Top]
9. Why did U.S. News not have the honorable mention category in the 2012 Best High Schools rankings?
Since U.S. News significantly increased the number of schools that were ranked either gold, silver, or bronze in the 2012 Best High Schools rankings by nearly three times compared to the rankings published in December 2009, we decided that we will not create an honorable mention category in 2012.
[Back to Top]
10. Why did some schools' rankings change in the 2012 Best High Schools rankings when compared to the last rankings published in December 2009?
The key reasons why high schools have moved into the rankings, changed positions in the rankings, or changed medal status are methodology changes made by U.S. News, as detailed above.
These changes meant that, compared to the rankings published in December 2009, U.S. News greatly enlarged the proportion of schools in each state that passed Steps 1 and 2; increased the number of high schools that were ranked gold, silver, or bronze by nearly 3 times to 4,877; boosted the number of numerically ranked schools nearly 20 times to 2,008 from 100; and lowered the threshold in the college readiness index needed for a gold or silver medal.
All these factors meant that, compared to previous editions of the Best High Schools rankings, in the 2012 rankings, there were many more high schools ranked for the first time, and more high schools were ranked higher than in the past.
There are a number of other possible reasons why high schools moved up or down or were no longer included in the Best High Schools rankings:
• Changes in relative performance on state tests: Some schools fell off the list completely because they are no longer among the best-performing schools on their statewide testsâ€"specifically, whether their overall student performance on state tests exceeds statistical expectations (Step 1) or their least advantaged students' performance is not as good as the state average (Step 2).
Without successfully meeting both of these two state test-focused steps, schools are not eligible for any medal recognition.
• Changes in relative or absolute performance on college-level coursework: Some schools may have moved either up or down in the rankings because of how the performance and participation of their class cohort on AP or IB exams compares with the performance of the class cohort from a year earlier. The determination of college readiness is based upon the performance and participation of 12th graders from the graduating class cohort in the most recent academic year (i.e., whether or not these students took and passed any AP or IB exams during their years at the school, up to and including their senior year).
Many schools have experienced a change in their status, ranging from moving a few places in the gold medal rankings to changing medal status (from gold to silver, silver to bronze, bronze to gold, or bronze to silver) due to changes in the level of a school's college readiness index.
[Back to Top]
11. How were the new 2012 Best High Schools rankings in each state and the Best Magnet and Best Charter Schools rankings calculated?
• State rankings: The state rankings methodology is based on whether a high school is nationally ranked gold or silver. All high schools nationally ranked gold and silver are numerically ranked in their state based on their position in the national rankings.
If the highest-ranked high school in a state is No. 50 nationally, then that school is also ranked No. 1 in that state; if the second highest-ranked school in that same state is No. 1,012 nationally, then that school is ranked No. 2 in that state.
• Charter and magnet rankings: The charter and magnet school rankings methodology looked at all public high schools nationally that were designated as either a charter or magnet school, or both, as reported to the U.S. Department of Education, and were also nationally ranked by U.S. News as either gold or silver medal winners.
If the highest-ranked high school that is a charter school is No. 6 nationally, then that school is also ranked No. 1 in the Best Charter Schools rankings. If the second highest-ranked high school that is a charter school is No. 8 nationally, then that school is ranked No. 2 in the Best Charter Schools rankings.
This rankings methodology was also followed to produce the Best Magnet Schools.
[Back to Top]
12. Why is a school not listed or not ranked in the U.S. News 2012 Best High Schools rankings?
All public high schools in United States, excluding those from Nebraska, are listed on the Best High Schools website. Information on these nearly 22,000 high schools is accessible online via the U.S. News high schools search function, the state rankings pages, districts pages, and school profile pages.
Each individual school now has three Web pages of descriptive data, including enrollment, ethnic and economic diversity data, detailed location information, state assessment test statistics, and AP and/or IB data where applicable.
In terms of the rankings, 4,877 high schools scored high enough in all parts of the rankings methodology to win a gold, silver, or bronze medal. That means that nearly 3 in 4 U.S. high schools did not score high enough for a gold, silver, or bronze medal.
If your school is not listed as a medal winner, that means that your school didn't score high enough in the methodology described above to receive a medal.
[Back to Top]
13. Why did U.S. News list a school's AP or IB data even if that school did not win a gold or silver medal?
U.S. News published AP or IB data for all schools that had AP or IB programs and whose data was supplied to us by College Board and International Baccalaureate, even if a school did not pass Step 1 and Step 2 in the methodology or have a college readiness index that was high enough to make it a gold or silver medal winner.
We thought it was very important to publish the calculated variables derived from the AP and IB testing information that was supplied. This will enable users of our website to compare all schools with AP and IB programs on the availability of these programs and on how their students performed in them.
[Back to Top]
14. How did U.S. News decide if a school was a charter or magnet school? Where did descriptive information about the school come from?
U.S. News uses designations found on the Common Core of Data, the U.S. Department of Education's website, as the basis for those designations. U.S. News did not independently verify the data that was reported to the Department of Education.
If the Common Core of Data site said that a school was a charter or magnet or had other descriptive information about the school, then that is the school-type designation and information that U.S. News went by. The Common Core of Data used was from the 2009-2010 school year.
[Back to Top]
15. Why did one school in the same county rank lower on the U.S. News 2012 Best High Schools rankings than another school in the same county that it outperforms on the state tests in terms of the absolute level of results?
The U.S. News 2012 Best High Schools rankings are based on more than just the absolute level of state test results. The rankings take into account the relative performance on state tests of students who are economically disadvantaged and minorities, not the absolute level.
In addition, the Best High Schools rankings take into account how well students do on either the AP or IB tests, not just the proportion of students taking the tests and the number of tests they take.
[Back to Top]
16. Do the Best High Schools receive a reward?
No monetary reward is associated with being named one of the U.S. News Best High Schools, but each gold, silver, and bronze school will have its rankings, medal designation, and data published online at usnews.com.
There are also many marketing opportunities through U.S. News. The 2012 Best High Schools badges can be downloaded easily and for free for use on your school's website. For additional uses of the badge, such as in print, on plaques, or on trophies, contact Wright's Media at usnews@wrightsmedia.com or (877) 652-5295.
You may also visit our school marketing center for additional information.
[Back to Top]
17. Whom should I contact if I have questions about the data, the current rankings, or the rankings methodology?
Because of the large number of inquiries, parents and teachers should direct questions to school administrators. High school or school district officials and administrators with specific questions about your current ranking, the accuracy of current data, or why your school was ranked as it was in the current rankings should E-mail such questions to official@usnews.com.
Please include details about the high school including city, state, and county; your title; and your E-mail address. Please limit inquiries to one official representative per school or district.
[Back to Top]
18. Whom should I contact if I have questions about my school's historical rank in the Best High Schools rankings?
High school or school district officials and administrators with specific questions about if or where your school or schools ranked in the first three U.S. News Best High Schools rankings, published in 2007, 2008, and 2009, should send their inquiries via E-mail to Education-PR@usnews.com.
[Back to Top]
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar