Why Isn’t Decatur High a “Top High School”?
Decatur Metro | December 10, 2009Don writes in…
CSD wants to be recognized as a top 10 districts in the nation. I note that US News doesn’t list DHS among the top 29 of GA high schools. To be fair, Walton HS and Lakeside HS are missing, too, and I think they’ve got good reps. I’m hoping someone with more knowledge can explain why US News’s methodology may exclude DHS. Thanks
29 Georiga schools made the list, with Redan High School in Stone Mountain is the only high school in DeKalb County to register.
And to help you gather background info, the ranking methodology can be found in full here. Here’s the summary…
A three-step process determined the best high schools. The first two steps ensured that the schools serve all their students well, using state proficiency standards as the benchmarks. For those schools that made it past the first two steps, a third step assessed the degree to which schools prepare students for college-level work.
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I may be in the minority, but I think that if some of our administrators would focus more time and money on making sure that kids are taught properly rather than focusing on every new fad that comes down the pike, we’d be a lot further up the list. I see too much emphasis on resume building, designer education labels and having “the next cool thing,” and too little focus on just doing the basic work of getting kids educated. Changes are put in place at a whirlwind place at CSD, with no time taken to see if one change is working before another change is put into play.
And the School Board either is drinking the Kool-Aid, has been led to believe that they are stupid (they are not stupid), or are just scared to do anything to slow the speeding train for fear that an admin may throw a tantrum and quit.
There are amazing teachers and students (from all walks of life) at DHS. There are top notch administrators at CSD – but not everywhere. Sometimes I wonder if many of our teachers’ and students’ achievements happen in spite of the administration rather than because of the administration. I would be happy to see administrators more interested in the basics and less enamored by fads. But that’s just me… What do I know? I’m just a stupid parent.
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
AMEN !! (and i’m a religios agnostic)
You’re in the minority, but it sure is a vocal one.
It’s the silent majority whose opinions we don’t know. Hopefully, the last elections have brought home the point that CSD and the Board ought to know rather than wait for elections to find out.
If they are silent, how is the school board supposed to know their opinion?
My sarcastic answer is that everyone would be less silent if they didn’t have their heads bit off when they make polite but frank suggestions. My more measured, less bubbling fury, answer is that the Board should actively seek out feedback through better utilization of the school leadership teams, town meetings like the wonderful two candidate forums, surveys, email responses, meeting with parents who request it etc. Or they could just be around the schools more; you see that less and less probably because most of their children are getting older and are only in DHS or RMS where the kids don’t want you around a lot and it’s not developmentally appropriate to be in the school a lot bumping into parents and hearing their sentiments.
Or the Board can wait for the vote. This time they squeaked by. Next time there will be more new parents with less history, less loyalty to old relationships, and more questions.
I think DHS is moving in the right direction by implementing the International Baccalaureate (“IB”) program in 9th and 10th grades – hopefully this will be in all grades in the next couple of years.
I went to a high school in Florida that was ranked as the #1 public high school a couple years back. My high school had the IB program in all grades. A lot of the ranking had to do with the number of students taking AP and IB classes.
IB is a very challenging curriculum (I thought it was harder than college). Plus, our school had a couple teachers with PhDs (or almost PhDs). I would really like to see DHS move in this direction. Many of my classmates went to Ivy League schools and other elite out-of-state universities (Duke, Stanford, etc.).
DHS is a TOP school, we don’t need US News to tell us such. Good educators, great students doing well and bound for great colleges. Great community to support it.
I’m not sure the question has been fully answered yet, though I think Winnona Judy is on the right track. I don’t think Don’s question was a judgment on DHS. He just wants to know why some good schools don’t qualify for these accolades.
Thanks for recognizing that one can ask questions about CSD without intent to slam it. I doubt that a school with little parent involvement, few questions, and no one challenging those in charge is any good.
On another note, what makes Redan so good? This isn’t sarcastic but genuine interest. Maybe there’s some good clues for us there.
Newsweek recognized DHS as a top school as noted in this month’s Decatur focus. We can be proud of our school system. They send kids to top collegesevery year, and most report back they have no trouble with the work, especially writing, one of DHS’s strong suits. Their high graduation rate speaks to their success with all levels. As the very satisfied parent of two DHS grads I tell parents I saved all that money on private schools, which I could spend on enriching activities like music lessons, summer enrichment programs travel, and tuition at good schools. The other thing I tell parents is save, save, save. You have no idea how expensive college can be. Even kids who earn a national merit scholarship will need help, and as we all know now, you have no idea what the economy will be doing by the time they graduate!
Based on an admittedly cursory scan of the methodology description, it seems the whole ‘college readiness’ portion is predicated on the assumption that high AP and/or IB participation and scores represent the optimal outcome for every individual student. IMO that is not the case. Statistical analysis is useful in certain contexts, but it seems to me (a non-parent who somewhat cheerfully forks over my share of property tax every year) that a true assessment of our particular high school starts with asking for how many students does DHS produce optimal outcomes? That can’t be answered through statistical analysis and comparison with other high schools all over the place. Yes, there is a place for statistics and comparisons. But anybody wanting to know how well this school will do by their student, should look at what this school does and how it does it, in terms of ensuring that learning occurs for each individual student, and not depend on a national publication whose primary objective, after all, is to sell magazines.
BTW, the US News methodology for rankign colleges and universities is so rife with opportunities for participating institutions to manipulate the supporting data they submit, that it becomes meaningless (in many opinions) as an accurate assessment tool for individual families. Several high-profile institutions now decline to participate, and I’ll bet their number grows each year.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0412/p01s02-legn.html
http://moneywatch.bnet.com/saving-money/blog/college-solution/why-us-news-college-rankings-are-a-joke/703/
http://business.theatlantic.com/2009/09/dont_pay_attention_to_the_us_news_college_rankings.php
Read this really great article that was in the recent issue of Carpe Diem, the DHS student magazine. This new grading policy is not going to help us–even though it is engineered to make even the worst students “look” better!
http://www.3ten.org/Site/Current_Stories/Entries/2009/10/29_OPINION%3A_New_policies_don%E2%80%99t_make_the_grade.html
One of my favorite things about Carpe Diem is that it appears to have an independent editorial policy. I’m sure there’s review for offensive language and that Central Office is aware of what’s published but Carpe Diem has had several editorials or articles over the years that clearly represented the views of students who disagreed with the position of Central Office and/or their parents. Very IB, very developmentally appropriate!
Not sure yet what I think of the grading policy other than a lot of parents don’t seem to like it. Below the DHS level, there’s been comments on the effect of no longer having honor roll.
Something that no one brings up but I keep thinking about is the fact a rolling grading system can hurt your grades as well as help them, e.g. if you start out with A-level work and then slack off. Your former A could get transformed into a B or C retroactively if I’m understanding the system correctly.
As the parent of an already under-motivated high school student, I really detest the new grading policy. The kids have no incentive to study or work for their grades. They are allowed to fail and then retake unit tests. Why would you study for a test if you knew it didn’t matter what you got on it, because you could automatically retake it? Having a practice run at the test is better than studying if you’re already a slacker student.
Karass, when Baby Nell is old enough for real school, I am hiring you to be my education advocate!
No honor roll? I believe fierce and bloody academic competition, personally. Mr. Nelliebelle feels the same way about any sort of athletics. We may be screwed in the CSD system!
I don’t know any of the details about the new grading system, but my heart swelled with hope for the future when I read this. The piece was written by teenagers who show a complete understanding that success and achievement are directly tied to the amount of effort they put forth, and that failure is a valuable learning experience.
CSD Mom, thanks for posting this, and these kids’ parents should be proud of the smart and motivated children they’ve raised.
Ms. Norton is right on. She needs to submit that piece to every college to which she applies. That article give her a significant boost toward admission at a highly competitive college. My husband works in admissions at a local university, and professors are dismayed at the soft, squishy, whiny excuses for college students that they are burdened with these days. They all look good on paper, but many of them are incapable of accomplishing anything of quality on time. Their sweet little selves have been coddled for 18 years and never once allowed to fail.
These types of grading policies are for Lake Wobegon preschoolers, not young adults heading out into the real world.
But it is the latest educational Prada, so you know our admins here in Decatur just have to buy it.
This is putting a band-aid on the achievement gap, not healing it. It’s still festering underneath.
And we wonder why so many kids drop or fail out of college.
Wow. Thank you for posting Ms. Norton’s opinion piece. I’m sure this young woman will be able to do well in college, but I worry about her less motivated peers with this new grading system. Is this really the way IB works? I am not familiar with it…..
No, that grading system has nothing to do with IB. IB was extremely challenging and required many of us to study at least 4 or 5 hours per night. I only wish we could have taken some of our tests twice – maybe I would’ve gotten higher than a C+ in geometry!
On a better note, the DHS band concert tonight was magnificent!