Now that lists of high school rankings are being published in the media, parents, teachers, and students will no doubt be wondering where "their" school ranks on the list. The lists of high school rankings are based on student test results. I would argue that the criteria for what makes a high school a good one should be based on something more than what these tests measure.

What are the Basis of High School Rankings?

When you look at high school rankings, information other than the test scores may also be included. Along with the test results, the total number of students attending the school, and the student-to-teacher ratio is also provided. The percentage of students receiving a free or discounted lunch is also tracked.

Since the high school rankings do show that it is possible to have a good number of students getting a free or discounted lunch yet do well on tests, why is this figure included in the numbers prepared for publication?

Again, the administrators and the public are basing their opinion about what makes a school a good one simply on a snapshot of the test results from a single day. This view of high school rankings is a very narrow one. What about intangibles? What about facility attitudes toward teaching? What about student safety? Is the environment encouraging or discouraging. For example, taking California's API scores, a school catering to a naturally above average student body in aptitude may end up with the highest test scores without teaching or challenging its students. Another school that begins with a student body collectively average or below in natural aptitude may score much lower but provide a challenge and significant improvement to the student body. Which school is then doing its job better? Put another way, if we truly want to get a good handle on high school rankings and what they mean, we need to keep in mind that they only tell one part of the story. Consider, if you will, a competition of any kind. It could be an athletic or academic one. At the end of the day, the winners will be selected. The standings don't show what the competitors went through to prepare for that day, who competed while battling symptoms of the flu, or which ones had trouble concentrating on the task at hand because of problems at home.

High school rankings do the same thing. They show a snapshot of one day but don't take into consideration the hard work the students are putting forward when they go to school or how much progress they have made over the school year. The high school rankings don't indicate which students were fortunate enough to have teachers who were willing to offer extra help or lend an ear when students had a problem they wanted to discuss.

All of these elements have a bearing on high school rankings. You simply can't take all the work that goes into a school year and choose one day that will indicate whether the students are a success or not. Check out the high school rankings if you want to, but do keep in mind that a set of figures does not tell the whole story about a school.