High school rankings do have meaning

Peter Blewett:  

Which Wisconsin high school is best: Rufus King, Brookfield Central or Whitefish Bay? It depends on who you ask. According to U.S. News & World Report, King is the best; Newsweek recently ranked Brookfield Central at the top of its list, and Milwaukee Magazine has listed Whitefish Bay High School as its top choice.

The latest poll, published by U.S. News, has driven Alan J. Borsuk, a fellow in public policy at Marquette University and who writes an education column published in the Journal Sentinel, to question for the first time the validity of these polls.

Why? Because the U.S. News poll has the audacity to rank three MPS high schools - King, Ronald Reagan and Milwaukee School of Languages - among the state's top 10 high schools while omitting Whitefish Bay and other suburban schools "known for high success and high average college entrance scores."

What's a parent to do? Depending on the ranking they read, parents might well choose one school over another or decide to opt out of public schools altogether. If the variation in rankings weren't enough to confuse the issue, some in the media are here to tell us that the variation signifies the worthlessness of the rankings. As Borsuk writes, "I don't think I've ever seen one (poll) that convinced me that it really pinned things down."

Posted by Jim Zellmer at May 20, 2012 2:37 AM
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