THE PERIMETER PRIMATE: Grannan: Once more with feeling -- Newsweek's high school rankings are still invalid and corrupt

THE PERIMETER PRIMATE: Grannan: Once more with feeling -- Newsweek's high school rankings are still invalid and corrupt

Grannan: Once more with feeling -- Newsweek's high school rankings are still invalid and corrupt

by The Perimeter Primate

Guest post by Caroline Grannan.

The Newsweek Magazine high school rankings have just come out.
Once again I’m posting a blog commentary debunking these rankings as both invalid – based on a single measure that simply does not measure the quality or efficacy of a high school – and corrupt. And I'd like to add a warning to the local press. Please don't fall for this dishonest and corrupt PR ploy. Ignore it or debunk it, but don't hype it. You discredit yourself, your publication or outlet, and your entire profession.
I’m reposting the comment I made last year on examiner.com, with slight updates. Here's that post:
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Newsweek Magazine has once again compromised both credibility and ethics by releasing its annual high school rankings feature. The "rankings" are based on one single measure -- one that is invalid as a gauge of quality and simply does not measure how "good" a high school is. They also violate journalistic ethics, as the gauge is one that directly promotes increased profits for an enterprise run by Newsweek's parent company.
The rankings are based entirely on the single criterion of how many AP (or two other similar) tests are taken by the students in the school. That's it. How the students perform on the tests is not part of the equation. Holly