The Challenge Index: Why We Rank America's High Schools

Newsweek.com, May 17, 2008 -- Newsweek published its first list of top U.S. high schools 10 years ago. It was based on a school-assessment method I invented to dramatize my distress at the way the vast majority of high schools were barring students from challenging courses. One C student I knew was so angry at being denied a chance to take Advanced Placement U.S. history that she studied on her own and passed the AP test, but her school still would not change its rules. My list would compare such schools unfavorably with their few enlightened neighbors. I knew many principals and superintendents were not going to like it.

Here are the first words of my introduction to what I call the Challenge Index, published in my 1998 book, "Class Struggle: What's Wrong (and Right) about America's Best Public High Schools," from which Newsweek took that first list of 243 ranked schools:

"Nearly every professional educator will tell you that ranking schools is counterproductive, unscientific, hurtful and wrong. Every likely criteria you might use in such an evaluation is going to be narrow and distorted. A school that stumbles one year may be fine the next. I accept all those arguments. Yet as a reporter and as a parent, I think that in some circumstances a ranking system, no matter how limited, can be useful."

In the 10 years since, I have received tens of thousands of e-mails from educators, parents, students and taxpayers about the Newsweek list. They have mixed views on my attempt to force a discussion of high-school rigor by listing in Newsweek those few schools that have encouraged more students to take Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and Cambridge courses and tests. This year the most far-sighted schools, nearly 1,400 of them, are ranked on Newsweek.com. That is only 5 percent of all U.S. high schools, but a big improvement from the 243 schools on the first list.

The method we use to calculate each school's index rating is simple, and can be applied by readers to their neighborhood schools. We count the total number of college-level exams taken at a school by ALL students each May, and divide by the number of graduating seniors. Any school with a ratio of 1.000 or higher, meaning it gave at least as many tests as it had graduates, is placed on the Newsweek list.

Although simple, many educators tell me the measure captures, in a way other school statistics do not, a different attitude about students in the schools that make the list. Those schools turn out to have principals and teachers who are trying hardest to raise the achievement of each child, with college as a useful goal for all until students are old enough to decide what they want to do. "AP is the best thing to measure in a high school," said Tom Di Figlio, a veteran AP psychology teacher at Spanish River High School in Boca Raton, Fla., "because it is a real achievement test that marks proficiency in college-level courses."

We rank these great schools so people will read the list and the accompanying stories. From long experience as journalists, we know if we did not rank them, few people would pay attention. Some readers endorse my view that Newsweek's recognition has given support to the many AP, IB and Cambridge teachers who want to welcome into their college-level courses all students willing to do the work. We understand, however, that many readers find this way of looking at schools odd, and off-putting. Most Americans consider schools with the highest average test scores to be the best, even though their students' success is heavily influenced by the financial status of their parents. The Challenge Index was designed in part to undermine the view that schools with lots of rich kids are good, and schools with lots of poor kids are bad. I love pointing to the many schools on the Newsweek list that are full of low-income students, and often rank higher than much more affluent rivals.

This year, a group of 38 school superintendents from five states wrote to say they did not want their schools included. "We all believe that all schools, communities--and your readers--are poorly served by Newsweek's persistent efforts to use a single statistic, the number of students who sit for AP or IB exams, to rank schools," their letter said. "In reality, it is impossible to know which high schools are 'the best' in the nation. Determining whether different schools do or don't offer a high quality of education requires a look at many different measures, including students' overall academic accomplishments and their subsequent performance in college, and taking into consideration the unique needs of their communities."

I called John Chambers, superintendent of the Byram Hills district in New York and a leader of the letter-writing group. He agreed that the data we sought was public information, and that he and other superintendents would provide it if we insisted. I told him we believe that we serve not superintendents, but readers, and they wanted to see the list. Chambers said OK, but could we let readers know about the attempted boycott? I said I thought that was a great idea.

Here are the districts whose superintendents endorsed the letter:

New York: Ardsley, Bedford, Blind Brook-Rye, Brewster, Bronxville, Byram Hills, Chappaqua, Dobbs Ferry, Greenburgh/North Castle, Hewlett-Woodmere, Katonah-Lewisboro, Mamaroneck, Mt. Pleasant-Cottage School, North Shore, Ossining, Rye Neck, Scarsdale, Spackenkill, Tuckahoe, Valhalla.

New Jersey: Montclair, Montgomery, Tenafly, Verona.

Connecticut: Darien, Simsbury, Stonington, Wilton.

Illinois: Decatur #61, Deerfield/Highland Park #113, Evanston, Glenbrook #225, Lincoln-Way #210, New Trier #203, Oak Park and River Forest.

Massachusetts: Amherst-Pelham, Masconomet, Wayland.

I understand where they are coming from. I love talking to them about the issue. The majority of schools still refuse to let all students who want to work hard into their AP courses. But the numbers who have opened those courses are growing, as the Newsweek list shows, and each year more and more principals and superintendents write me to say they are glad they decided to change their policy.