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Newsweek America's Best High Schools, 2008
Author: Newsweek
Published on May 19, 2008 - 7:10:03 AM

NEW YORK, May 18 - In Newsweek's 2008 annual ranking of America's top high schools, there are 22 schools in the top 100 that have graduating classes smaller than 100 students. Ten years ago, when the first Newsweek list based on college-level test participation was published, only three of the top 100 schools had graduating classes that small. For the complete list of the 1,300 top schools and Frequently Asked Questions, go to Newsweek.com.

The number one school on the list is BASIS Charter in Tucson, with only 120 high-schoolers and 18 graduates this year. Second on the list is the district-sanctioned magnet school Talented and Gifted in Dallas with 198 students. Suncoast Community in Riviera Beach, Fla., is third, followed by Science and Engineering Magnet in Dallas, which shares a building with the number two school. Rounding out the top 10: Stanton College Prep, Jacksonville, Fla. (No. 5); Preuss UCSD, La Jolla, Calif. (6); Academic Magnet, North Charleston, S.C. (7); Paxon School for Advanced Studies, Jacksonville, Fla. (8); Oxford Academy, Cypress, Calif. (9), and International School, Bellevue, Wash. (10).

Contributing Editor Jay Mathews reports in the May 26 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, May 19) that the past decade has seen a noticeable countertrend toward smaller schools, and the movement includes several of the schools in the top 10. It also includes alternative schools with students selected by lottery, such as H-B Woodlawn in Arlington, Va. And most conspicuous of all, there is the phenomenon of large urban and suburban high schools that have split up into smaller units of a few hundred, generally housed in the same sprawling grounds that once boasted thousands of students all marching to the same band.

The schools are ranked this year, as in years past, according to a single metric, the proportion of students taking college-level exams: Cambridge, International Baccalaureate and Advanced Placement. We count the total number of these tests taken at a school by all students each May, and divide by the number of graduating seniors. Any school with a ratio of 1.000 or higher is placed on the Newsweek list. Over the years this system has come in for its share of criticism for its simplicity. But that is also its strength: it's easy for readers to understand, and to do the arithmetic for their own schools if they'd like.

Ranking schools within the list is always controversial, and this year a group of 38 superintendents from five states wrote to ask that their schools be excluded from the calculation. "It is impossible to know which high schools are 'the best' in the nation," their letter read, in part. "Determining whether different schools do or don't offer a high quality of education requires a look at many different measures, including students' overall academic accomplishments and their subsequent performance in college, and taking into consideration the unique needs of their communities."

There is, in our view, no real dispute here; we are all seeking the same thing, which is schools that better serve our children and our nation by encouraging students to tackle tough subjects under the guidance of gifted teachers. And if we keep working toward that goal, someday, perhaps, a list won't be necessary, Mathews writes.

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