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Newsweek ranking based on how many students take challenging courses
By Kathy Cleveland
Newsweek Magazine has ranked Hollis/Brookline High School the top public high school in New Hampshire, based on the number of challenging courses students take.
In a multi-story section in its May 28 issue, the news weekly ranks public U.S. high schools and names 1,258 schools as the best in the country. Hollis/Brookline was ranked 937. Only 12 public schools in New England are on the list and three of them are from the Granite State.
And out of those three, Hollis/Brookline was ranked the highest, followed by Moultonborough at 1,055 and Contoocook of Hopkinton, at 1,213.
In the story, called “Why they are the best,” reporter Jay Mathews explained how he developed his “Challenge Index” which measures the number of International Baccalaureate and Advanced Placement tests that students take.
The index is intended to show which schools were the most demanding and supportive of all students.
“Test scores, the usual way of rating schools, are in nearly every case a measure of parental wealth and education, not good teaching,” Mathews wrote.
“Every study shows that if your parents fill their house with books, include you in conversations and take you to plays and museums, you tend to score well on standardized tests, even if your school is not the best,” he said.
Mathews said he “took the total number of AP tests (later adding International Baccalaureate and Cambridge tests) taken each year and divided by the number of graduating seniors, so that big schools would not have an advantage over small schools.”
On Thursday, Hollis/Brookline Principal Tim Kelley, who was supervising the school’s field day, said he is proud of his teachers and students, although some people could say the number of AP courses is a flimsy indication of school quality.
“It’s a funny statistic, but I don’t think we’re unworthy,” said the principal.
Twenty-nine seniors last year had perfect scores on their AP tests and seven had perfect scores on their SATs, he said.
Freshman Steve Spader called the ranking “pretty cool,” and said he plans to take AP courses.
“Being out in the middle of nowhere,” said student Robert Magee, “you wouldn’t think we’d be so good, but we’re famous.”
Junior Alicia Smith said she is now taking AP English and history and the ranking “is pretty rewarding. Our AP courses feel like college courses.”
Newsweek ran its annual list for the first time in 1998. The magazine’s complete list can be found at xtra.Newsweek.com.
