School rankings are evaluations, comparisons, and contrasts of schools based on a variety of criteria. They are done to allow people, particularly parents, to evaluate, compare, and contrast schools. Real estate agents use these ratings because they are used by people when deciding where to live. National rankings, as well as state, district, and school-level rankings, are available.
The United States Department of Education is a good place to start looking for school rankings. This department does not rank schools, but recommends the SchoolMatters website from Standard & Poors.
SchoolMatters’ rankings are only for public schools. They provide an overview with contact information, a map, and general school information like enrollment, student/teacher ratio, and ethnic make-up, as well as space for user-submitted parent ratings and reviews and photos. Test scores, a classroom profile, college prep information, the district’s financial information, and community demographics are among the other topics covered. A link to the school’s website is also available, as is the ability to e-mail a parent from the school if any have volunteered, as well as the ability to compare up to three schools within a state.
State-by-state data is available from the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES). Its data is based on four areas: student characteristics, school and district characteristics, racial/ethnic data, and NAEP performance in mathematics, reading, science, and writing.
High-profile school rankings can be found in two national magazines. The ratio of Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), and/or Cambridge tests administered to all students in the school to the number of graduating seniors is used to rank public high schools in Newsweek’s Top High Schools. The top 1300 schools in the country are listed on the Newsweek website, along with information on the percentage of students receiving federally subsidized lunch and the proportion of graduating seniors who passed at least one AP or IB exam.
U.S. News & World Report publishes school rankings for the top 100 public high schools in the United States. Students’ performance on state tests, the success of the school’s disadvantaged students, and the college-level coursework offered are all investigated.
It’s important to remember, however, that ratings can be inaccurate or misleading. When U.S. News & World Report published school rankings for the top 100 schools in November 2007, they got the math wrong. A school ranked fifth was in the top 500 of over 18,000 high schools evaluated, but not among the top ten. Of course, as soon as the error was discovered, a retraction was issued, but it serves as a reminder that rankings aren’t infallible.