Tuesday, May 17, 2005

What makes a high school good? Newsweek earlier this month came out with its list of the "100 Best High Schools" in America based on the number of students taking AP and IB courses. Now those courses are excellent and are certainly an indication that a school values rigorous college preparation for its students... but how many more factors, measureable and unmeasureable, go into calling a high school a "good" school. One wonders what Newsweek is actually trying to accomplish with this, anyway. Here are some things that made my high school and my high school experience "good," in that it helped prepare me for life and college, exposed me to an array of skills and experiences, and made me a pretty well-rounded person. Teachers who cared enough even to take time to mentor students like me (how do you measure that?) Excellent fine arts programs which have gained statewide and national recogntion Cultural diversity (I'd send my kids go to a school with 50 languages spoken over one with 50 AP classes--I think that is in fact a more valuable life preparer) Large and diverse selection of extra-curricular activities (of which I did too many) Strong competitive academic and athletic teams Anice critique of the Newsweek article. 11:50:11 PM    comment []