Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
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Tuesday, May 2, 2006
Oakwood, Centerville nationally ranked
Newsweek’s annual list of the nation’s top 1,000 public high schools is out and just two local schools made the list. Oakwood comes in 336th (up from 405th last year) and Centerville just barely makes the list at 956th (down from 874 in 2005).
I should preface this by saying that Newsweek’s ranking methodology, which was devised by the Washington Post education reporter Jay Mathews, is quite controversial. School are ranked based on the percentage of students who take Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate exams. Is this the best way to determine what makes the best school? That’s debatable.
Overall, just 18 Ohio high schools even made the list. Oakwood was ninth in Ohio and Centerville ranked 18th in the state.
This brings to mind a recent discussion I had with a doctor I just met. When he learned I wrote about education for a living, he wanted to know what I thought about public schools in the Miami Valley. His impression was that they are good but not great. I think the data tends to support his view.
When you look at most lists ranking Ohio schools by test performance, Oakwood generally ranks high — often in the top 20 districts. Centerville and a few others also usually fall in closer to the top than to the middle. But most of what we in Dayton think of as the best local school districts usually rank more on the high end of the middle when compared to the rest of the state.
On the other hand, the Miami Valley doesn’t have too many districts at the bottom. Dayton and Jefferson Twp are the exceptions here, usually ranking at or near the worst in the state, and lately they’ve been joined by Trotwood in many cases.
So overall, it’s probably fair to say schools in the Miami Valley, with a few exceptions, are pretty middle of the road.
But looking at this list, I suppose you could say two out of 18 of the best high schools in Ohio isn’t bad for Dayton, especially considering comparably-sized Toledo only has one school on the list and the entire southest part of the state is unrepresented here.
Are you satisfied with where the Miami Valley’s schools rank?
Here’s the list of Ohio schools:
68 Indian Hill (Cincinnati)
97 Chagrin Falls (Cleveland)
99 Wyoming (Cincinnati)
136 Solon (Cleveland)
143 Orange (Cleveland)
286 Columbus Alternative (Columbus)
310 Shaker Heights (Cleveland)
347 Beachwood (Cleveland)
366 Oakwood
398 Olentangy (Columbus)
463 Aurora (Cleveland)
706 Madeira (Cincinnati)
725 Ottawa Hills (Toledo)
729 Firestone (Akron)
777 Bexley (Columbus)
830 Upper Arlington (Columbus)
849 Hudson (Akron)
956 Centerville
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