posted 12/18/09

Most of Minnesota’s best 39 public high schools enroll less than 500
students, according a recent “US News and World Report” report. While
any such list is open to debate, the magazine is not an advocate of
suburban, urban rural, district or charter public schools. Their sometimes
surprising key conclusions:

• Twenty-three of Minnesota’s best 39 public high schools are rural,
ranging from Ada-Borup and Adrian to Red Rock Central, Rushford Peterson
and Winne-Mac.

• Nine of the best public high schools are in suburbs: This includes
Chaska, Edina, Hopkins, Irondale, Mounds View, Roseville and Wayzata in
this list. There also are two charter public schools: Eagle Ridge in Eden
Prairie and Math and Science Academy in Woodbury.

• Seven of the highest rated high schools are in Minneapolis, or St.
Paul. Four of are charter public high schools (Community of Peace, Great
River, Higher Ground and Hmong Academy in St. Paul). Three of them are
district high schools (South and Patrick Henry in Minneapolis, Central in
St. Paul).
The complete list is at www.usnews.com/listings/high-schools/minnesota

These selections say several things.

First, there are great high schools all over Minnesota.

Second, the list helps challenges the, “which is better, district or
charter public schools” debate. Thirty-three of the thirty-nine are
district high schools; six are charter public high schools. Charters
enrolled about 32,000 students last year, less under 4% of Minnesota’s
roughly 818,000 k-12 population. Yet 15% of the 39 “best Minnesota high
schools are charters – 85% are district high schools. So charters are
over-represented. But the majority of “best” high schools are part of a
district. The district or charter label isn’t enough to judge a school.

Finally, the vast majority of outstanding schools are small. A few enroll
more than 1,000 students. But most have less than 500.

The magazine says selection is “based on the key principles that a great
high school must serve all its students well, not just those who are
college bound, and that it must be able to produce measurable academic
outcomes to show the school is successfully educating its student body
across a range of performance indicators.”

The magazine analyzed 21,786 public high schools in 48 states plus the
District of Columbia. It used three steps, beginning with the percentage of
students rated proficient in statewide reading and math tests. “US
News” also examined what percentage of students performed “ better than
statistically expected for the average student in the state.”

The second step compared each school's math and reading proficiency rates
for disadvantaged students with the statewide results for these student
groups and then selected schools that were performing better than this
state average.

Finally, schools making it through the first two steps were judged
nationally on the final step, college-readiness performance, using Advanced
Placement and International Baccalaureate test data, depending on which
program was largest at the school. The magazine used a company named
“School Evaluation Services,” which developed the methodology and
compiled the analysis.

This list won’t end debates. But studying these schools can help many
others improve.

Reactions from readers:

On Dec 19 2009, Bill Towne wrote:

I don't know much about the methodology behind US News and World Report's
rankings, but the fact that smaller schools get such good reviews makes me
skeptical about how they are ranking schools. Schools with small populations
are much more likely to do better (or worse) compared to the average just by
"luck".

  - Suppose that all schools are equal.
  - Suppose that a kid is successful at that school if you flip a head on a
  coin and the kid is unsuccessful if tails appears.
  - Suppose US News and World Report says a school is successful if 60% or
  more do well.

A school that has ten kids will be successful if 6 or more heads show up.
(this happens 38% of the time)
A school that has 100 kids will be successful if 60 or more head show up (3%
of the time)
A school that has 1000 kids will be in US News and World Report if 600 heads
show up. (happens 0.00000001% of the time)

So in May, when the MCA scores are taken and the Star Tribune posts which
schools improved the most (or which went downhill the most), you'll notice
that they are all schools that we haven't heard of. My skeptical mind tells
me that is what is going on with the US News and World Report rankings that
put so many small schools on a list. If they are calculating schools with
kids that are doing “better than statistically expected for the average
student in the state” as you point out, then they probably aren't
controlling for size of the school and there is bias toward smaller schools.

I will say that it is nice to see two of my district's schools on the list
as well as my wife's (Edina) although none of them made AYP last year!

Bill Towne
Southwest teacher
Lake Harriet Parent
Never a fan of the US News and World Report rankings