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US News ranks the 10 public high schools in Michigan
Half of the top 10 high schools in Michigan ranked this week by US News & World Report are located in more affluent communities and serve smaller percentages of low-income students compared to the state average, an analysis by the Detroit Free Press found.
Of the top 10, five are in communities with median incomes higher than the state median income of $66,986, according to census data. Four are in communities with median incomes of $100,000 or more.
In seven out of 10 schools, a quarter or less of students are considered economically disadvantaged. Half of the schools on the list serve less than 15% of economically disadvantaged students. Nationwide, about 54% of students are considered economically disadvantaged.
“What they're really doing is measuring the possibilities,” Josh Cowen, a professor of education policy at Michigan State University, said of the August 2023 rankings, which typically arrive each year in an avalanche of attention and headlines.
This year's ranking put Bloomfield Hills International Academy at the top of the list, followed by Macomb International Academy in Clinton Township and City High School in Grand Rapids, according to state data.
US News & World Report, a media organization known for ranking schools, reviewed about 18,000 public high schools nationwideand nearly 700 in Michigan made the list.
But the ranking is also no stranger to criticism, namely that the schools at the top tend to be in wealthier communities with districts that are better endowed with stronger tax bases, giving them the honor of being a school. best” as determined by US News. with a badge to display on their website. None of the top 20 schools in 2024 are in the city of Detroit, many are in the surrounding suburbs. Detroit's Renaissance High School was ranked 145th on the list.
Some of the schools are also more rigorous by design, not intended to serve every student. The International Academy is a magnet school, with an admissions process.
In what appeared to be an effort to address criticism that the rankings favor schools that serve wealthier communities, US News, in partnership with the nonprofit research institute RTI International, changed the way it ranked high schools in 2019. The change shifted the emphasis from performance on Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) exams to other measures, including graduation rates and performance on state assessments,the Washington Post reported. However, Michigan's top schools are still mostly in affluent areas.
Eric Brooks, chief education data analyst at USNews & World Report, in an emailed response to questions in August 2023, wrote that the organization's methodology attempts to measure how well schools serve marginalized students.
“We have an additional ranking factor that evaluates state-specific assessment results for these historically underserved subgroups relative to what is typical in their states,” he wrote. “In this case, the top-ranked schools are also those whose 12th-graders earned qualifying scores on a variety of college-level exams, and schools in more affluent areas tend to provide the most college-level work and preparation.”
How US News calculates high school rankings
According to the US News website, the rankingconsider the following indicators:
- College readiness (30%):This indicator takes into account the percentage of 12th graders in 2021-2022 who took at least one Advanced Placement test (AP or IB) by the end of their senior year and the number who earned a qualifying score on the test. Some criticism of rankings like this stem from the fact that not all schools have the resources to offer AP or IB programs. US New writes that “adjustments were made” so that schools that do not offer these classes are not significantly penalized.
- College curriculum (10%): This index is also calculated using AP and IB scores, looking at how many of those advanced courses students took and the percentage of qualifying points they received.
- State assessment skills (20%):This indicator evaluates students for proficiency on state assessments in math, reading, and science. US News used data from the 2021-2022 tests. The use of assessments to assess school quality is also often criticized because the results often resemble a measure of poverty.
- State assessment performance (20%):In this indicator, US News measures total rating scores “compared to what US News predicted for a school with its demographic characteristics in its state.” In this case, the organization writes, “schools that perform best on this ranking indicator are those whose assessment results far exceed US News' modeled expectations.”
- Low student performance (10%):This measure looks at how black, Hispanic and low-income students score on state assessments compared “to the average of underserved students among schools in the same state,” according to US News.
- Graduation rate (10%):US News measured the percentage of students who entered high school in the 2018-19 school year and graduated four years later, in 2022.
According to Cowen, many rankings like the one made by US News don't take into account the kind of resources available in more affluent communities to help boost student achievement on state assessments and encourage students in advanced courses.
“These are high-income areas, but also very saturated with what I call human capital. Very high educational level of parents, lower crime rates, huge investment in infrastructure,” he said.
For example, Skyline High School, no. 10 on the list, is in Ann Arbor, where the countyhas implemented a very detailed systemfor monitoring lead levels in water, skills that poorer districts may not have due to a lack of available resources.
Additionally, rankings like the one made by US News don't really show whether schools are driving learning progress among students, Nat Malkus said in an August 2023 interview. Malkus is a researcher and deputy director of education policy studies at The American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank based in Washington, DC.
“Many of these schools will be good because they have the most important resource for quality results,” he said. “These are the students who walk in the door on the first day… US News doesn't have the data or the ability to measure how productive the schools are.”
What do the rankings say about disparities in public schools?
Public education advocates have long said Michigan's public education funding system favors affluent districts, where wealthier tax bases can cover more costs, through more active fundraising or at the state level where they say underserved students with higher needs should be funded at higher levels.
The current budget is the state's attempt to address some of those disparities, which allocated more funding to vulnerable students, including English language learners and students considered at risk. which include, among others, low-income studentsstudents experiencing homelessness and victims of child abuse.
Malkus said parents worried about where to send their child to high school should dig deeper than national rankings.
“There is no substitute for engaged parents, going to the site, talking to the schools and making sure the schools are going to be the places they want their child to spend seven hours a day,” he said. .
For Cowen, there's nothing wrong with making information about schools public, but the US News framework isn't intended to improve public policy.
“They're not talking about equality, or opportunity,” Cowen said. “They're just talking about a leafy neighborhood that you should aspire to be.”
The 10 best high schools in Michigan, ranked by US News
- International AcademyBloomfield Hills
- International Academy of MacombClinton Township
- City High SchoolGrand Rapids
- Washtenaw International High School, Ypsilanti
- Saginaw Academy of Arts and Sciences, Saginaw
- Troy High School, Troy
- Northville High School, City of Northville
- Rochester Adams High School, Rochester Hills
- East Grand Rapids High School, Grand Rapids
- Skyline High School, Ann Arbor
Contact Lily Altavena: [email protected].
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