Look beyond the 'best' lists

By The Gazette Editorial Board

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Kudos to the students and staff of Cedar Rapids Washington - once again Iowa's lead school on the Washington Post's list of America's best high schools.

And congratulations to other top-10 Eastern Iowa schools: Cedar Rapids Kennedy, Iowa City West, Mid-Prairie and Decorah.

It's nice to see some recognition of the hard work and dedication invested by those schools' teachers, parents, students and staff.

But, without downplaying any of their accomplishments, we also wonder just what factors go in to qualifying a school for this well-known “best” list.

Just one, if you check with Newsweek Magazine and the Washington Post, which have been ranking high schools since 2003. They call it the “Challenge Index.” It's supposed to be a measure of how effectively a school prepares its students for college. It's figured by calculating how many college-level tests (such as the Advanced Placement exam) each school administered for every graduating senior.

To make the list, a school must have at least 1:1 ratio of tests per graduating senior.

But is that everything it takes to identify the country's best schools? Not even the folks who put the list together would go quite that far.

“While not a measure of the overall quality of the school, the rating can reveal the level of a high school's commitment to preparing average students for college,” reads the disclaimer on the High School Challenge website.

We were skeptical of even that much, so, we checked this year's Common Application - used by more than 400 public and private higher-education institutions in the United States, including some highly selective schools.

While the application includes plenty of space for students to describe their academic and career interests, to detail their extracurricular activities and personal philosophies, there is no checkbox to indicate whether the student attended a Washington Post-ranked “best” school.

OK, a bit of tongue-in-cheek here. But there's also a serious point to be made.

We need excellent schools. Our students deserve them and our country's future demands them. Administering college-level tests, while to be commended, isn't the only significant measure.

If it was, we wouldn't be debating education achievement and reform at every level from national to local. This summer's state education summit would be moot.

So don't be overly dazzled by any of the “best schools” lists compiled by media companies or other organizations. Look deeper.

And let's keep our state working on ways to provide our students with more of what's “best” for their education and future.

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