Looks like we are going to have to lay off talking about how stupid Dallas is with Dallas public schools taking the two top spots in the best 1,500 US Public Highschools. Here are how ratings were determined: [rquoter]Public schools are ranked according to a ratio devised by Jay Mathews: the number of Advanced Placement, Intl. Baccalaureate and/or Cambridge tests taken by all students at a school in 2008 divided by the number of graduating seniors. All of the schools on the list have an index of at least 1.000; they are in the top 6 percent of public schools measured this way. [/rquoter] Complete listings: http://www.newsweek.com/id/201160/?q=2009/rank/1 Houston schools don't show up until 80 with YES Prep Southeast Unfortunately my Alma Mater Mirabeau B. Lamar is down at 838 while our rival Bellaire is at 135 When I was there in the mid-80's we were considered the cream of HISD.
hmm is that measure a good way of measuring... i mean, if you have an academy that's a public school but set aside for the honors students or whatever, obviously the 100 of them will likely take a high number of AP/IB exams. what if there's a school of 3000 with an equal number of 100 or so who take the same number of exams as the kids in that academy...yet they have 2900 other students too...or about 800 graduating seniors. maybe other measures could be incorporated.
Doesn't YES mostly take "at risk" students? I think the students sign a contract that says that they will get accepted to a four year college (or they won't graduate YES). About YES YES Prep Public Schools exists to increase the number of low-income Houstonians who graduate from a four-year college prepared to compete in the global marketplace and committed to improving disadvantaged communities.
How can Debakey HS of Health Professions not be in there? From other lists I remember them being the top school in Houston.
these rankings are a joke- honestly, its hard to accurately measure a high school. YES? that says all you need to know about these rankings.
FYI : US News and World Reports also ranks them pretty high (#52 I believe). Here is US News and World Reports rankings from the end of last year (the top 2 Dallas schools from the previously mentioned list rank in the top 30 on this list from the looks of it) : http://www.usnews.com/articles/educ.../12/04/best-high-schools-gold-medal-list.html
