Caveats

Using standardized tests such as SAT and AP scores to rank a school can be misleading. If a high school is training first rate machinists, mechanics or plumbers, that fact will not be reflected in these pages. A well trained machinist may not be concerned with taking the SAT.

Unfortunately, there don't appear to be any measures that indicate how well a high school serves its non-academic students.

I've attempted to compensate for a criticism that can be leveled against percentile rankings by normalizing the combined scores. Raw percentiles have the obvious disadvantage of dividing a population into top/bottom. So many schools are above a line - so many are below the line. Normalizing a population's score compensates for that deficiency.

If the best combined score is 1000, and another's school's score is 900, the second school's normalized score is 90%.

The advantage of a normalized scoring mechanism is that it allows as many schools into the top rank as qualify. Conceivably, it's possible for all schools in a population to get an "A" score if they all cluster within 10% of the best score. The Japanese experience tells us that it's possible. It's just a matter of taking the steps required to reach that goal.

Those schools that have large percentages of their students with low average SAT scores are clearly under serving their students. The students believe they're college material when the SAT and AP tests are indicating they won't be in a position to keep up with college level classes. A student body that is averaging a combined 460 on the SAT is ill prepared for life after high school. Their math and verbal skills are very poor.

If you live near one of these schools, attend your local school board and insist that these number improve. One technique that will help improve school's performance is basing the administration's performance evaluations on the SAT and AP scores. If a third of the student body is heading for a post secondary education, a third of the administrator's evaluation should be based on the SAT/AP scores.

This technique of basing the administration's performance evaluation on national test scores has been used in Japan. Japan has a national test that all children take. All scores are available nationally and are widely published. The tests are used by the schools as feedback to see which portions of their curricula and teaching techniques need revising. The tests also serve as a yardstick to evaluate the schools.

The Japanese do an outstanding job of training their children for life after high school. If it works there, why shouldn't it work here?

mgreene@greenes.com. April, 1996