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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2009 > December > 21
Monday, December 21, 2009
Stivers ranks high, but it’s not the only great local high school
Stivers School for the Arts just earned a silver medal in the annual U.S. News and World Report ranking of the nation’s top 100 high schools.
It deserves that praise, and Dayton and the region are again reminded that the school is an educational gem.
As it was hailing Stivers, the magazine passed over five other excellent local high schools that had been ranked last year. It did so even as nothing has changed in Oakwood, Centerville, Cedarville, Bellbrook and at the Dayton Early College Academy to warrant their being bumped off. They were excluded primarily because of a change in the way they were evaluated.
To be fair, they ought to be celebrated, too.
The explanation for how these schools were dropped is a good reminder about the weaknesses of school quality measures. Depending on which criteria are used, good arguments can be made that these schools — and others in the Dayton area never mentioned by U.S. News — also belong in any conversation about great schools. Stivers, a downtown public high school, is highly selective. Only about one in three applicants are picked each year to enter at seventh grade based on their artistic talent, not their academic records.
Unlike most selective schools, Stivers has a challenging population of poor and minority children, kids who often struggle in other settings. At Stivers, they thrive. Test scores compare well with any school in the area, and the accomplishments of Stivers graduates are a testament to the quality of education they get.
Stivers is an especially good example of the particular type of standout school that U.S. News seeks to reward with its list. The magazine judges schools not just by their overall excellence on tests, but also how ready their graduates are for college and, notably, on their success helping their most disadvantaged students to succeed.
The magazine does a service by pointing out great schools that help kids overcome sometimes staggering barriers to compete on a world stage. But U.S. News’ approach is only one measure of excellence.
Here’s what went wrong for the local schools left off the list this year. U.S. News looks at detailed test data to make its first cut, including how many kids at each school scored in each of five categories — accelerated, advanced, proficient, basic and below basic.
Schools that move students up the steps of that ladder, especially poor and minority kids, earn big points.
But this year, U.S. News didn’t have test scores in such detail when it prepared its list. It’s unclear why, since the data is now available on the Ohio Department of Education Web site. Instead, U.S. News used less detailed test data, focusing on how many kids had gone from failing to passing. Schools that dropped from the ranking may have looked less impressive by this measure than they might have with the more detailed data.
It’s likely the five schools dropped out of the top 100 for essentially a technical reason, not due to any significant change in performance.
But they aren’t the only great local high schools that are missing. It just depends on how “great” is quantified. Looking at total test performance? Springboro and Northmont were among the very best in the area. Neither made U.S. News’ list.
If average ACT college entrance scores were a primary measure, then Beavercreek, Tippecanoe and Franklin-Monroe in Darke County would be ranked. Greenview comes in right behind Oakwood if the percentage of graduates receiving an honors diploma is key.
All these schools are excellent in one way or another.
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