[Header Photo by Austris Augusts on Unsplash]

This is a short reminder about the problem with ranking schools. Let’s look at a top 10 high schools list in South Carolina:

#1 South Carolina Governor’s School for Science & Mathematics – [Poverty Index] 21.7

#2 Academic Magnet High School – 15.1

#3 Spring Hill High School – 32.7

#4 Mayo High School for Math, Science & Technology – 47.6

#5 SC Governor’s School for Arts & Humanities – 22.5

#6 HCS Early College High School – 80.2

#7 Catawba Ridge High School – 18.2

#8 Greenville Technical Charter High School – 29.5

#9 Berkeley County Middle College High School – 27.4

#10 River Bluff High School – 31.7

---

Now compare that list (I have added PI data) with this ranking by PI:

Eight of the ten ranked are in the least impoverished high schools in the state. I have included in orange several charter schools (12 of the least impoverished high schools out of the lowest 40 are charter schools) because charter advocates often enjoy comparing apples to oranges to promote charter schools. [Note that several of the so-called top 10 are schools allowed to select their students.]

These rankings reinforce a misconception that out-of-school factors are just an excuse when trying to educate students; however, historically and currently, reading test scores and achievement reflect a fact that has been replicated for decades:

Almost 63% of the variance in test performance was explained by social capital family income variables….The influence of family social capital variables manifests itself in standardized test results. Policy makers and education leaders should rethink the current reliance on standardized test results as the deciding factor to make decisions about student achievement, teacher quality, school effectiveness, and school leader quality. In effect, policies that use standardized test results to evaluate, reward, and sanction students and school personnel are doing nothing more than rewarding schools that serve advantaged students and punishing schools that serve disadvantaged students.

Rankings are harmful to education and perpetuate another false story about schools in the US.