School Community

MONTGOMERY, Alabama — What does it take to be the best high school in America? Who gets to decide?

The well-followed (and often criticized) Newsweek Top 500 list included seven Alabama schools when it was released this week. Montgomery’s Loveless magnet program was No. 13. Five Birmingham metro area schools were included.

Newsweek, addressing criticism, changed how it chose schools. In 2011, average scores, rather than number of test-takers for advance placement and International Baccalaureate exams, were in the calculations. []

The Washington Post sold Newsweek last year, and Post education writer Jay Matthews oversaw the Post’s new High School Challenge Index. In acknowledging his own spot among “school ranking scoundrels,” he says the system earlier had been “designed to honor schools that have done the best job in persuading average students to take college-level courses and tests.”

You can sort by Alabama the Post’s list and Newsweek’s and compare.

University Magnet in Irvine, Calif., took the eighth place spot this year, despite budge problems. University High Principal John Pherson attributed the 17-spot jump from 2010 to the new ranking system.

Ninth place went to Suncoast Community in Riviera Beach, Fla., for the second year.

Do you agree with these rankings? Do you think using the new methodology provides for a more accurate ranking system?

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