Drop in rankings doesn’t show school’s whole story

In 2007, U.S. News and World Report magazine released its first annual high school rankings. Saratoga High ranked No. 72.

In 2008, SHS dropped to No. 80, and in the latest rankings from 2010, the school dropped to No. 93.

Before sounding the alarm about Saratoga’s education going bad, it’s important to note that the magazine criteria are more than a little misleading.

The rankings are based on three factors, according to U.S. News. The first looks at whether each school’s students were “performing better than statistically expected for the average student in the state.” U.S. News looked at the the math and reading results for all students on the high school test for each state.

The second factor determined whether the school’s less-advantaged students were “performing better than average for similar students in the state.”

Schools that made it through the first two became eligible to be judged nationally on the final criterion, college-readiness performance, which measured which schools produced the best college-level achievement for the highest percentages of their students by using AP and IB test data as “benchmarks for success.”

The drop in the rankings for SHS may result from a number of reasons. The school’s population has increased steadily over the past few years. With more students, some will do well, others might not.

Another could be the school’s lack of “least-advantaged students (black, Hispanic and low income).” With lower numbers of these students, if even one of these students is struggling, the school’s average can drop in a disproportionate way.

The real question is why the scores of these less-advantaged students matter so much in terms of rankings —especially at schools like Saratoga that have relatively few disadvantaged students.

Furthermore, the overall rankings are flawed by the sheer fact that they quantify the success of the school based on test scores and other criteria. These numbers do not always tell the whole story as to which high schools are better than others. And, of course, some schools are good for some students but not others.

As we look at school rankings every year, it’s important to keep in mind they all have their biases and flaws. Just because a school is rising or dropping in the rankings may not say much about the actual experience students have at the school.