Wednesday, April 14, 2010

The Educated Reporter: Rankings fail?

The Educated Reporter: Rankings fail?

Rankings fail?

If you know me, you know I am inherently skeptical about ratings and rankings. As an authority of both cake andpie, I lowered my guard and developed high hopes for the Jezebel dessert March Madness, and look what happened: cheesecake won! As a PIE! Which is it not.

Daveen Kurutz McLaughlin of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review called my attention last week to an effort from GreatSchools.net and Forbes magazine to identify the “best cities to live and learn,” or “the best schools for your housing buck.” They calculated the list using a combination of test data and home prices. It seemed odd to Daveen because the Pittsburgh Public Schools were featured, even though they are hurting academically and, as she put it, “barely made AYP this year.” We looked into the methodology.

According to GreatSchools, the “education quality score” was determined by state test scores and NAEP data. I