C. Milton Wright High School in Bel Air has been named one of America’s Best High Schools in 2012 by Newsweek magazine, which ranked public high schools based on their success in turning out college-ready graduates.
“We are excited that our students, parents and teachers are receiving national recognition for their hard work,” said C. Milton Wright High School Principal Marlene Molter. “We will continue to encourage our students to reach the highest level of achievement as we prepare them for college.”
The nation has more than 20,000 public high schools, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. To compile their rankings, Newsweek invited schools across the country to respond to a survey and assessed more than 2,300 respondents, using data provided by the schools from the 2010-11 school year. The top 1,000 schools were chosen as the nation’s best. The Newsweek rankings are based on the following six components:
Graduation rate (25%)
College matriculation rate (25%)
Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), Advanced International Certificate of Education (AICE) tests taken per student (25%)
Average AP/IB/AICE scores (10%)
Average SAT/ACT scores (10%)
AP courses offered per student (5%)
More detailed information about Newsweek’s methodology can be found here.
Patterson Mill High School Ranks Among Nation’s Most Challenging High Schools in 2012
Patterson Mill High School in Bel Air has been ranked by Washington Post columnist Jay Matthews as one of the 2012 most challenging high schools in the nation. Matthews recognizes public schools in his “High School Challenge” each year when the number of Advanced Placement or other college level tests taken at a school equals or exceeds the number of graduating seniors.
“The students, faculty and members of the administrative team are very proud to be honored by the Washington Post, for the second consecutive year, as one of the top 1,900 high schools in the United States,” said Patterson Mill High School Principal Wayne Thibeault. “This is indeed a great honor for our community of learners! This award serves as a befitting testimonial to the hard work and rigorous instruction that occurs on a daily basis at Patterson Mill.”
The High School Challenge methodology is explained by Matthews in the following Q&A posted on the Washington Post Web site:
How does The High School Challenge work?
We take the total number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and Advanced International Certificate of Education tests given at a school each year and divide by the number of seniors who graduated in May or June. I call this formula the Challenge Index. With a few exceptions, public schools that achieved a ratio of at least 1.000, meaning they had as many tests in 2011 as they had graduates, were put on the national list at washingtonpost.com/highschoolchallenge. We rank the schools in order of ratio, with the highest (19.522) achieved by the BASIS school in Tucscon.
I think 1.000 is a modest standard. A school can reach that level if only half of its students take one AP, IB or AICE test in their junior year and one in their senior year. But this year only 9 percent of the approximately 22,000 U.S. public high schools managed to reach that standard and be placed on our list.
2. Why do you count only the number of tests given, and not how well the students do on the tests?
Some schools brag about their high passing rates on AP or IB, meaning the percentage of test-takers who scored 3, 4 or 5 on the 5-point AP exam or 4, 5, 6 or 7 on the 7-point IB exam. Passing scores make students eligible for credit at many colleges and universities.
I decided not to count passing rates in this way because I found that most high schools kept those rates artificially high by allowing only top students to take the courses. In other instances, they opened the courses to all but encouraged only the best students to take the tests.
AP, IB and AICE are important because they give average students a chance to experience the trauma of heavy college reading lists and long, analytical college examinations. Research has found that even low-performing students who got only a 2 on an AP test did significantly better in college than similar students who did not take AP.
Reacting to the national rankings for both Harford County high schools, a spokesperson provided the following response from Harford Schools Superintendent Tomback:
“We are extremely proud of C. Milton Wright and Patterson Mill high schools for being named top schools in the nation,” said Superintendent Robert M. Tomback. “We are equally as proud of our staff for their dedication to the success of our students.”
Congrats to CMW for your actual success.
As far as the other survey (you know, the one where Mathews ignores those annoying aspects of education like achievement, and whether the students actual are able to demonstrate that they learned anything) its just insulting to call pmhs a great school based on the “challenge”.
This is nothing more than a self-serving principal twisting his policies to succeed in a sham contest; and the smart people in the system know it. And the others like lawrence and tomback are happy just to selfcongratulate even tho they are aware of the meaninglessness.
Do these rankings include the numbers of students that take the AP class but do not take the AP exam? If you did not include these students wouldn’t that artificially inflate the numbers? Wouldn’t it be reasonable to think that students that do not take the exams do so because they do not think they can pass it and don’t want to waste the exam fee? There is a lot of talk in teacher circles that way too many students are in AP classes that do not belong there and that only counting those students that pass the exam is just a way to play with the numbers to make things look better.
I think your questions were answered in the article – 25% weight for students taking the course, but only 10% weight for how well they do.
Too many students are taking AP, or let me qualify that statement: too many students think they are AP students. There are also too many AP quality students that don’t take AP courses because they know they can ‘easily’ earn an A in a non-AP course and don’t want to be pushed harder and risk lowering their GPA. They understand that colleges are going to look at that GPA before they look over the transcript to see what classes made that GPA.
As an aside, PTB nailed it.
OK I get it but isn’t the real measure of student success how they did on the exam? If you got a 1 or 2 on the exam isn’t that the same as failing the class, it least according to the colleges since they won’t give college credit for those scores? Shouldn’t it be the same for not taking the exam? When I was in college you had to take the final exam of you failed the course. Having the ratios the way they do makes things look better than they actually are. I can see where some students might not want to take the AP course. They may have other activities in their lives that they do not want to sacrifice like sports, jobs, church, etc., not just to avoid the extra work. Also, don’t students get their GPA scores graded on a different scale if they take honors and AP classes? I hear that there is great pressure on teachers from administration to give passing grades to students who as you say think they are AP material. Doesn’t this cheapen the accomplishments of those that really earn good grades in these harder classes?
Great job CMW and PM! What the heck happened to Fallston? Take note HCPS…..
Jay Matthews says, “Research has found that even low-performing students who got only a 2 on an AP test did significantly better in college than similar students who did not take AP.” Some of the comments seemed to be skeptical about allowing weak students to take the course/test. Considering the quote from Matthews, is it possible that the students received a “wake-up call” when they found that a weak effort resulted in a poor score and they realized they had to improve their effort when they got to college? If so this would seem to indicate that as many students as possible should participate in the AP programs.
I doubt that Mr. Matthews’ study addressed the negative impact on students that were allowed (and in many cases aggressively encouraged by school counselors and administrators to take AP courses so that their school should look good this frequently against the advice and recommendation of classroom teachers that best know these students) to take AP classes when they either lack the intellectual capacity, motivation, or work ethic to succeed at the AP level.
Another reality is that the vast majority of students that do not take AP and other more advanced and difficult courses in high school are not really college material. These students frequently attend the community college where their graduation rates and successful transfer to four years institutions is minimal. This is frequently true of those students that take AP courses that either do not take the exam or score poorly.
Students today are not any smarter than in the past. We didn’t have AP when I was in school but we had upper level classes for the most talented and motivated students. We got a quality education that prepared us very well for the rigors of college without having to pay for an AP exam that said we learned the mastered the course work, our report card grade demonstrated that.
AP is just another example of the over-inflation that has taken hold in our society. Grade inflation, job title inflation, college degree inflation, even children’s sports inflation (it’s no longer good enough play parks and rec ball your kid has to be on a club team).
Colleges have recognized that the AP has been watered down and are either limiting the number of credits allowed to be gained through AP or only accepting scores of 4 or 5 for credit. I recognize that there is some monetary motive by these colleges but my professor friends are telling me that even with high scores many of the AP students showing up in their courses do not demonstrate college ready skills. I’ll put my trust in their assessments rather then Mr. Matthews statistics.
The only real benefactor of this love affair with and the explosion of AP courses in high schools is the company that owns AP and the school system administrators that use the AP to bolster their own resume in search of grander titles and higher paying positions.
Would there not be some value in the fact that the student would become familiar, but not master, some of the concepts the first time through a course like AP calculus? Then when they repeat the course in college they might be better able to reach the mastery level. Perhaps the research quoted by Matthews reflects this process?
We took calculus, physics, trig, micro biology and other advanced classes before AP came along. Students were not encouraged to take these classes if not ready.
While there may be minimal value for the individual student taking an AP class for which they are not capable or ready many teachers I know feel the cost in collective drain on the remainder of the class is too high.
Statically you will find that the more students that take the AP exams the lower the overall pass rate and scores. This is also true of the SAT.
As in my previous post the facts are that the lowest performing students that take AP are also the lowest performing students at college, of which most never come close to graduating from a community college or moving to a four year institution.
So from that perspective I would say there is little if any real advantage or value to the student to take AP courses if they only become familiar with and not master the material. All of which leads back to the conclusion of significant numbers of those that are actually teaching the students (not administrators and AP corporates) that AP is fine as long as students are properly screened.
Ask any AP teacher…there are kids in AP classes that academically do not belong there. They are pushed by guidance counselors, administrators, unrealistic parents, or their own misguided views of the course. Today’s AP course is not the AP-type course that was in place when I was in high school.
Great job CMW and PM
The AP system may not be perfect and you may not agree with the scoring of the high schools, but we all should be proud that 2 local schools were recognized. Depsite the ability to manipuatle the data, CMW and PMMHS shine a positive light on our county and the teaching staff who are trying to prepare students for the rigors of college.
There will always be data analysis and contradictions, but the fact remains these 2 schools rose to the top based on consistent measure of all the schools Mr. Matthews reviewed. Instead of tearing down every positive accolade, I am proud of the schools. Their teachers, administrators and students are all striving to improve and push themselves to a higher standard.
Nothing is perfect, but working together toward a common goal and being part of a solution not creating negativity can resolve some of the concerns raised here. The complainers are always plenty and critical of those that work and try to be part of a solution. REMEMBER : Be the change you want to see in the world. If you have concerns then become active in local school PTSA, visit during American Education Week and by all means – ask questions. Participate in the school instead of complaining about what you perceive is happening there.
What makes you think we complainers all not already involved in our schools. Just the apposite, many of us are and we can see the problems and do work to support the schools, staff and students. It doesn’t mean that we can’t point out those problems to others in hopes that they will becomes informed and help in those efforts to make change happen for the better. These are nice statistics but there is more to the story than these numbers and I think that is what many of those making comments here are trying to point out.
C.Milton Wright has recently been added to the 2012 High School Challenge Rankings, joining Patterson Mill on that list.
I understand that there was some sort of oversight and have asked Washington Post columnist Jay Matthews, who created the list, for clarification, which I will publish here if I get it.
CMW was not on the list when it first published. I searched for all county high schools and CMW specifically because it had been on the list in prior years. HCPS did a search as well and found only Patterson Mill. In any event, CMW is the list now. No other HCPS high schools have been added at this time.
Thats funny….neither of these schools were even mentioned this year for Maryland’s top 10 highschools….no school in Harford County was even mentioned. Hmmm…