The Rankings Game

By Mary Tedrow

U.S. News & World Report recently released its first ranking of America’s “Best High Schools,” in apparent competition with the annual ratings published by Newsweek and Washington Post education reporter Jay Mathews. We can be sure the latest Top 100 will compel some communities, parents, students or political leaders to claim bragging rights—and others to begin questioning local leaders about the ranking of their hometown high school.

No matter where your school shakes out on the scale, you can be sure of two things. First, U.S. News & World Report has already generated the coveted “buzz” and will sell a lot of magazines to—and gain a lot of visits to their ad-laden website from— parents and leaders who must know who has won the Super Bowl of Education. And second, this newest “rank order” (read that however you like) will begin to affect what goes on in high schools across the country—adding one more hurdle to the marathon we call public schooling.

A bit skeptical about that last claim? Witness the effect of the five-year-old Newsweek rankings on the school nearest you. Mathews’ rankings formula leans heavily on a school’s involvement in the College Board’s Advanced Placement program. As a result, thousands of local dollars are now being spent on AP curriculum and tests so that Any Local High School will make an appearance somewhere in Newsweek ’s list. The College Board, in essence, is now writing the curriculum for many of America’s secondary schools—with little debate among educators and parents about what we hope our children will know and be able to do at the end of their high school years. These days, we just hope...