Grosse Pointe North zooms upward in
Washington Post High School Challenge

A high-school ranking system with a formula simple enough for a grade-schooler to understand has given a lift to Grosse Pointe North High School.

The Washington Post's High School Challenge, compiled and explained by the paper's education columnist, Jay Mathews, seeks to rank schools by how well they prepare students for college. Unlike other ranking systems, which consider multiple factors, the Post's simply combines the number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and Advanced International Certificate of Education tests given in the academic year, and divides that total by the number of graduating seniors.

Using such a measure, it's easy to boost a ranking by simply getting more students to take the tests, and this year North was able to vault over 250 spots from last year. North is now the seventh-ranked high school in Michigan, and Grosse Pointe South is third-ranked.

"The more kids you have taking the tests, the more you can move up," said Monique Beels, assistant superintendent for curriculum, assessment, instruction and technology. "We're all really proud of North and the high expectations they have there."

The Post's ranking system doesn't consider the grades students received on the tests, only that they took them. In a FAQ, Mathews explains:

"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. … 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."

The index also excludes magnet or charter schools that draw elite students to the extent that "its average SAT or ACT score exceeds the highest average for any normal-enrollment school in the country.

"The Challenge Index is designed to identify schools that have done the best job in persuading average students to take college-level courses and tests. It does not work with schools that have no, or almost no, average students," Mathews wrote.

"We're moving in the right direction," said Beels. This "reinforces the wonderful things that the staff is doing with the students there."

The Post's main page on the challenge, with access to its searchable database, is here.

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