The best high school you can go to

This is the time of year people start thinking about something they've taken for granted -- their high school.

Public or private, down the street or across town, the quality of your high school hasn't been on your mind since the first week of 9th grade, when your goal was to figure out the shortest route between classes, and why the vice principal refused to honor the elevator pass some senior sold you for 10 bucks.

Now, as the grass reemerges from the cracks in the student parking lot, lots of people are thinking about high schools -- and some of these thoughts aren't all that kind.  

A few seniors who didn't get into their first choice colleges are wondering why AP English was only available the same period AP Chemistry was offered. A few juniors are wondering the same thing-why aren't there more tough classes, so their chances of landing a yes from their dream college would go up? 

And then, there's the media.

A ranking of the best high schools is coming out, and there's a good chance your high school won't be on it.  Why?  Because the sole criterion Newsweek magazine uses is the number of Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate exams taken in each high school. 

It doesn't matter how many students drop out of your high school, or how many lives the counseling center at your high school turns around every year-heck, it doesn't even matter if AP English and AP Chem are offered the same period, making it impossible  to prepare for both exams.  They count up the number of tests taken, and they're done-simple.

Or maybe simplistic.

About three dozen school superintendents -- including some who run the high schools Newsweek identifies as the best-have written Newsweek and told them to cut it out. Right-some of the people who should be gloating for getting the Newsweek crown for greatness are turning down the crown, because they know there's something much more important to high schools than the number of tests students take.

That would be the quality of the lives of the students who take -- or don't take -- the tests.

There's a lesson for all of us here. If the school leaders who can get hired and fired based on these rankings can call Newsweek out, then maybe we should phone home. 

Maybe seniors can see that by pushing their school's academic envelope, they've prepared themselves to make the most out of any college -- and in the end, isn't school more about the person you become than the place you graduated from? 

Maybe juniors can't expand their high school's honors program-but maybe they can follow the example of the junior who studied Renaissance History on her own, with the goal of getting original research published. 

Think now -- will colleges respect her less because she couldn't take a class someone else designed, or will they respect her more because she looked at existing limitations, said "That's nice", and rewrote the road map?

Newspapers gives us plenty of reasons to listen to the limits of our schools and ourselves.  Instead, listen to the 38 superintendents who just told Newsweek enough is enough, even though it may cost them their jobs in a tough economy.  Follow these leaders -- and when you next think about the best high school you can go to, maybe all you need to do is look at what you've got, instead of looking in a magazine.

Heck, they'll even drive you there in a tricked-out yellow stretch limo every day for free.

 

About Patrick O'Connor

Patrick O'Connor is the Director of College Counseling at The Roeper School in Birmingham and the author of "College Is Yours in 600 Words or Less." You can contact him through his web site at www.collegeisyours.com.