Ranking America’s High Schools

A Few Quibbles on What Constitutes 'Best'

By Emmet Rosenfeld

A list of America’s top 100 high schools, as ranked by Newsweek , came out in May, and my school wasn’t on it. I teach English at a school in Fairfax County, Va., that gives (and whose students pass) more Advanced Placement tests than any other school in the world (over 3,000 this year). Five of the American students who logged perfect scores on the new SAT in its first year were ours, and we boast more Ph.D.s on our staff than most community colleges. So why aren’t we list-worthy?

Because we’re a “public elite.” Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, along with 20 other schools relegated to a sidebar on the last page of the Newsweek list, are excluded from being ranked because “so many of [our] students score well above average on the SAT and ACT.” Isn’t that a little like making an NBA all-star team, but leaving off the players who scored too many points or...