Why Isn’t Decatur High Among Newsweek’s Top High Schools?
Decatur Metro | July 2, 2010
In 2008, Decatur High School ranked as the 574th “Top High School” in the country according to Newsweek. Last year, DHS ranked two spots higher at 572. However, when this year’s rankings came out, Decatur High was nowhere to be found, prompting Todd to write in…
This may be old news, but Newsweek came out with its list of top High Schools, and the AJC ran the list. You’ll notice that Decatur High is not among them.
Now, as someone who moved here in part because of the vaunted CSD system, I was surprised. Are they really seen as being great only when compared to DeKalb County and City of Atlanta? Should I be spending my tax dollars elsewhere (and probably fewer of them) to ensure that my children are getting the best education bang for their buck? Granted, the vibe at Marietta High, and the political and social philosophies of the parents of those children, may not mesh well with my viewpoints, and thus living in Decatur is the better option on that count. I wonder what others in the community think.
I relayed Todd’s question to CSD’s Bruce Roaden and after a bit of digging, he clarified the situation…
Apparently, we were initially left off the list last year as well. Newsweek provides an opportunity to submit data to correct their information. We take the opportunity to submit a form with the necessary data and then we are included. Decatur High will be again submitting the appropriate figures and we will again be included in the rankings.
Newsweek’s “Best High Schools” FAQ even addresses this issue, explaining that there is no national database for “the number of AP, IB, and Cambridge tests and number of graduates for each public high school,” so they had to build their own. Why they’d miss a school for a second straight year, after adding it to the mix last year is beyond me.
The FAQ also notes, somewhat amusingly, that you shouldn’t worry too much about your High School’s rank.
I know nothing about how Newsweek does their ratings and don’t have time or sufficient interest to investigate. I do know quite a bit, however, about how US News & World Report puts together their ratings of post-secondary and professional schools. They’ve built a system based on self-reporting a broad range of factor, a system that can be easily gamed and is therefore so inaccurate and misleading that a number of colleges and universities have begun boycotting it, declining to submit information.
@Todd and anybody else tempted to give too much (as in any) weight to Newsweek’s high school ratings: do you really think a national publication whose job is to sell magazines is the best source of information about the quality of your own local schools? This is a small town where it isn’t difficult to know your neighbors and their children who are attending our schools. Talk to them, attend school events–plays, ball games, whatever–decide for yourself whether or not the kids are getting a good education.
While I agree that blindly relying on rankings to choose where you live and to choose your school is stupid, I don’t think they are unimportant. I do believe that to continue to attract the kind of sensible, reasonable and well-educated parents that we have in Decatur, we have to improve when it’s possible. I want my children to be around peers with parents that exhibit those qualities. And we did choose Decatur and continue to stay here in Decatur partly because of the school system.
What do fallacious rankings have to do with the school system’s ability to improve? And if blind allegiance to rankings is a mistake–as I believe and you seem to agree–then why do they matter when it comes to attracting families who will value and help sustain a good school system? Should not those families also be giving short shrift to rankings in favor of their own observations, experiences, and judgment?
As Mr. SHB suggests, let the real estate agents fret and rapture about rankings. It’s little to do with the quality of the education.
My high school consistuntly rank’s in the top 100. Thats why I’m so smrt.
And I bet you were validicktoriun too
I agree with STG that whether or not DHS lands in Newsweek’s survey is unimportant. Isn’t the quality of a school or a school system more an issue for real estate professionals than for parents? As long as your kids aren’t bullied or beaten, they’ll do just fine wherever they go to school, provided they have sensible, reasonable and well-educated parents and are encouraged to read and think critically at home.
I moved to Decatur (at the insistence of Mrs. Bastard) when our younger boy was ready to begin school. I haven’t stayed here because the schools are tremendous and the teachers are all delightful and dedicated (’cause they ain’t), but because it’s a great town with a tremendous sense of community. Where would you rather your kids grow up?
Do you call her Mrs. Bastard to her face?
Nope. She’s just “sweetheart” at the crib. Not that it’s any of your business . . .
Dear Bastard,
Of course, all teachers are not the best. One should never use the word all. There are always exceptions. And… All parents are not the best either! But most of our parents and most of our teachers here work hard and have a common goal: Educating our children! I can say this, the parents and teachers here work harder and accomplish more together than any place I have lived. It is definitely a partnership.
Fretting about rankings often leads to poor choices to try and game those rankings. Thus my urban, alpha city law school built a dorm and gym with Olympic size pool to move up with US News and World Report, and are still trying to get alums to pitch in and pay for it.
I’d rather spend our time and energy on more substantive education issues.
I’m not so quick to dismiss the rankings. They may not be perfect but they are looked at- by parents, college admissions officers, even kids. As any parent knows, college entry is getting more and more competitive. I am sure that if Decatur were ranked the top school in GA by Newsweek, it would be a source of pride for many of us.
If Decatur were ranked as the top school in GA by Newsweek, I would be deeply worried about what poor choices had been made to game the ranking system to get there. (see willow’s post, above)
I’ve always wondered why Decatur High never seemed to rank highly whenever I looked anywhere… I moved to Decatur for other reasons, but now that I have a kid everyone is always saying “well, you must be happy that you’re in such a good school district”. After hearing this a few times I thought I’d look up what I could about the wonderfulness of Decatur High, and when it just didn’t seem to rank all that well I just figured I must have either missed something and that I’d learn what I’d missed later, or that people were really talking about the elementary schools (and were assuming that by the time our little kids were in high school Decatur High would be up to speed).
The following is taken directly from the CSD website. It has been the underlying justification given by CSD and the board for almost all of their decisions over the last six years.
“The Vision
CSD will be recognized as one of the top ten community school districts in the nation. Students will be able to compete nationally and internationally in academic and extracurricular activities. CSD graduates will be successful in postsecondary endeavors and will become contributing, thoughtful members of their communities.”
So how do we think they’ve done over the last six years? Are we significantly closer to this goal? How do we determine if this goal has been met?
With K-5 we are closer I think. With 6-12 we are not closer to excellence. IMO, the vast majority of decisions at that level seem to be putting a damper on excellence and promoting mass mediocrity. It’s almost like it’s two different school systems.
Certainly the rankings aren’t perfect, but I think the schools ranked 1-100 are for the most part superior to the schools ranked 101-200, etc.
I wasn’t kidding about my high school being in the top 100. I was (through no fault of my own) fortunate enough to grow up in Montgomery County, MD, just outside DC. Look through Newsweek and US News rankings and you’ll see most of the high schools in Montgomery County in the top ranks.
Montgomery County’s quality schools are a nurtured fluke. Because it’s close to the federal job mill, the area is dense with educated family-havin’ professional-ish middle-to-upper-middle-income types whose kids tend to be high academic achievers.
But Montgomery County voters (like their cousins in Fairfax Co, Va, across the Potomac) commit their tax dollars to maintaining excellent public schools. Montgomery County spends more than $15K annually per student to keep its schools great. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong, but Decatur spends less than half that amount.
There’s more to quality education than money. There are pitiful school systems that spend way more than good ones. But money is a great macro gauge of a community’s commitment to quality public schools.
In general, Georgians are more tax averse and skeptical of government spending than Marylanders. Money’s not the only factor, but it’s a big factor in what makes quality public schools. You get what you pay for.
Amen. I don’t know how people expect the government to provide little things like good roads and schools and libraries and sidewalks and Medicare and police departments and public works if they don’t understand that the cost of living in a civil society is PAYING for the things that make that society a quality enterprise. The disconnect is bizarre.
So WERE you validicktoriun?
I wasn’t a good student until I got to university.