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Top High Schools

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auggie22

auggie22

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Newsweek publishes a top 500 high schools list annually. A few interesting things as I glanced through it.

New Jersey doesn't bring just cable boxes (and New York and CT, for that matter).

Pac12 and Big 10 states have the best high schools.

With the exception of CA, VA NJ and OH ( and maybe NC), states that are "good at school" are not good at football ( and vice versa).

CT holds up pretty well, particularly when you consider state size. Any bored data analysts want to crunch numbers with a CR slant?

America's Top High Schools 2016
 
Hit send too soon - PA and TX are both firmly in the good at both camp, too.
 
I know a guy that's an analyst and a therapist.
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What's crazy about TX high schools is that there are two school districts building $60+ million football stadiums right now. Quite the HS arms race going on there with who can build a bigger more extravagant stadium. Anyone that thinks football is going away any time soon needs to visit the south where it is ingrained in their culture, unlike up here.
 
There is no way Campo Verde High School is better than Oconee County.
 
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If these people think there are lots of good public high schools in the state of CA, then they have lost all credibility. CA schools blow. They still push kids from CA back a grade when they move to MA (same with FL and TX).

This tells you what you need to know. That MA and CT dominate the SAT despite very high participation is telling.

I've said it before, David Boren is very interested in recruiting CT HS kids. UT is already enough of a draw that it doesn't need the help.
 
a far more meaningful analysis would be # of super zips for each potential candidates DmA and the population in those zips.

I have a hunch CT is just slightly ahead.
 
auggie22 said:
Newsweek publishes a top 500 high schools list annually. A few interesting things as I glanced through it.

New Jersey doesn't bring just cable boxes (and New York and CT, for that matter).

Pac12 and Big 10 states have the best high schools.

With the exception of CA, VA NJ and OH ( and maybe NC), states that are "good at school" are not good at football ( and vice versa).

CT holds up pretty well, particularly when you consider state size. Any bored data analysts want to crunch numbers with a CR slant?

America's Top High Schools 2016
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These lists don't mean much as they seem to ignore a lot of privates. In the South, a lot of kids go to private religious schools that have much higher academic standards than even good nearby public schools. Even in CT, this list seems fishy. Avon is ranked 116, yet I know Kingswood-Oxford is a much better school.
 
shizzle787 said:
These lists don't mean much as they seem to ignore a lot of privates. In the South, a lot of kids go to private religious schools that have much higher academic standards than even good nearby public schools. Even in CT, this list seems fishy. Avon is ranked 116, yet I know Kingswood-Oxford is a much better school.
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Dude, obviously the list doesn't include private schools, so Kingswood Oxford and every other private in CT. and MA. aren't listed. New England private schools are way better than private schools in the South. If all schools were included, Exeter and Andover would have led the list.
 
The vast majority of students attend public school. This is true in every part of our country. Thus I view this list as a good indicator of where the top academic recruits can be found.

I think CR activity makes sense ( except for our plight ) when you look at this list. The regions that have a healthy number of top schools AND high school football power are the Crown Jewels, and the states where there is above average top high schools are where we have seen CR movement ( the anomalies being Ville and maybe Utah ).

This list also underscores what a mystery that is the situation with UCONN.
 
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The Newsweek listing is used by Real Estate agents more that anyone else I know and the analytics behind are very subjective.
 
shizzle787 said:
These lists don't mean much as they seem to ignore a lot of privates. In the South, a lot of kids go to private religious schools that have much higher academic standards than even good nearby public schools. Even in CT, this list seems fishy. Avon is ranked 116, yet I know Kingswood-Oxford is a much better school.
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I graduated from Avon HS a few years ago and will say that it is an extremely difficult high school for a public school, and also held in high regards for college applications. My grade sent kids to Duke (bleh), Northwestern, Cornell, UNC, Brown, Villanova etc. Thankfully I graduated when I did because UConn started accepting only the top 10% from AHS, which I was not, to Storrs a year after I came to UConn for my undergrad. For the value, I would rather put my kids through AHS than pay 35k a year to go to KO because chances are they would place at the same exact schools if they worked hard enough. I had a couple of close friends go to KO and they loved the school but they ended up at schools worse than UConn. However, schools like Avon Old Farms and Miss Porters are on an entirely different level. Wow ok I rambled on way too much when I shouldnt have even bothered but just my 2 cents haha
 
aburks41 said:
I graduated from Avon HS a few years ago and will say that it is an extremely difficult high school for a public school, and also held in high regards for college applications. My grade sent kids to Duke (bleh), Northwestern, Cornell, UNC, Brown, Villanova etc. Thankfully I graduated when I did because UConn started accepting only the top 10% from AHS, which I was not, to Storrs a year after I came to UConn for my undergrad. For the value, I would rather put my kids through AHS than pay 35k a year to go to KO because chances are they would place at the same exact schools if they worked hard enough. I had a couple of close friends go to KO and they loved the school but they ended up at schools worse than UConn. However, schools like Avon Old Farms and Miss Porters are on an entirely different level. Wow ok I rambled on way too much when I shouldnt have even bothered but just my 2 cents haha
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And here is why I bought a house in Avon.
 
An A student at that College prep in Florida transferred to Staples and it was another world in terms of how demanding it was.

This list overemphasizes the number of students in IB classes. At schools where IB enrollment is 100% because they are magnet schools, they fly up the rankings.

In other words, it's impressive but at the end of the day it doesn't mean much.
 
HuskyHawk said:
If these people think there are lots of good public high schools in the state of CA, then they have lost all credibility. CA schools blow. They still push kids from CA back a grade when they move to MA (same with FL and TX).

This tells you what you need to know. That MA and CT dominate the SAT despite very high participation is telling.

I've said it before, David Boren is very interested in recruiting CT HS kids. UT is already enough of a draw that it doesn't need the help.
Expand ...

I won't say all CA schools blow. Some of the high schools here are pretty good. CA is a large state, so there are some horrible schools that really drag rest of the state down. Here in Silicon Valley, I would say generally most public schools are pretty good. It also helps that this area probably has the highest concentration of educated people in the country.
 
auggie22 said:
Newsweek publishes a top 500 high schools list annually. A few interesting things as I glanced through it.

New Jersey doesn't bring just cable boxes (and New York and CT, for that matter).

Pac12 and Big 10 states have the best high schools.

With the exception of CA, VA NJ and OH ( and maybe NC), states that are "good at school" are not good at football ( and vice versa).

CT holds up pretty well, particularly when you consider state size. Any bored data analysts want to crunch numbers with a CR slant?

America's Top High Schools 2016
Expand ...

Recent article, re: this list, in the Greenwich Time noted that GHS, Darien, New Canaan and Staples were missing from list. GHS says it never received questionnaire. Assume same is true of others. Supposedly, the four schools are always on the list; some highly placed.
 
.-.
HoopsFan21 said:
What's crazy about TX high schools is that there are two school districts building $60+ million football stadiums right now. Quite the HS arms race going on there with who can build a bigger more extravagant stadium. Anyone that thinks football is going away any time soon needs to visit the south where it is ingrained in their culture, unlike up here.
Expand ...

My son plays football in the district with the big stadiums. 15,000 at the games is common.

The high schools in Texas' suburbs are very good.
 
I don't see the tie to CR here. Most semi-populated states have at least one P5 school regardless of how crappy their representative university or feeder high schools are. UConn and Connecticut public schools are much better than many states, but that doesn't seem to hold water.

I'm a product of a solid NJ school and my kids will be attending a top 150 school from that list. Hopefully that will help them get into a good school, but I'm not sure it means much other than we fund our schools and the parents push their kids to take AP courses and go to college.

My son wants to go to a school with solid sports and has UConn on that list.
 
The USNews high school rankings are used by real estate agents by more than anyone else, I think. Its all marketing. The metrics that are used are questionable and how the metrics are compared across school can be very subjective.

For example in New Jersey:

A) Dover High School: Grad Rate 84%, College Readiness Index 34.2, AP Tested 38%, AP Passed 87%, Math Proficiency 78%, English Proficiency 91%

B) Ramapo High School: Grad Rate 98%, College Readiness Index 57.3, AP Tested 62%, AP Passed 90%, Math Proficiency 97%, English Proficiency 99%.

In the 2016 Newsweek Rankings, Ramapo is unranked while Dover is ranked #49 in New Jersey and #1,542 nationally.
 
Chuck said:
I don't see the tie to CR here. Most semi-populated states have at least one P5 school regardless of how crappy their representative university or feeder high schools are. UConn and Connecticut public schools are much better than many states, but that doesn't seem to hold water.

I'm a product of a solid NJ school and my kids will be attending a top 150 school from that list. Hopefully that will help them get into a good school, but I'm not sure it means much other than we fund our schools and the parents push their kids to take AP courses and go to college.

My son wants to go to a school with solid sports and has UConn on that list.
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Good for your son! So for state universities with solid sports not too far from home, he's looking at what, UConn and Penn State? How about privates?
 
UCONN13KC said:
Good for your son! So for state universities with solid sports not too far from home, he's looking at what, UConn and Penn State? How about privates?
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We still have a looong way to go. He's in 5th grade! He has a few dream schools. UConn, UNC, UCLA, and Michigan. He's also decided he wants to play soccer in college. No chance he'll play D1. Right now we're just trying to use these dreams to keep him focused. His friends follow their parent's alma mater and a few other programs. There is a small UConn presence in our small north Jersey town. Less than UNC and a couple others, but it's there.
 
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Chuck said:
We still have a looong way to go. He's in 5th grade! He has a few dream schools. UConn, UNC, UCLA, and Michigan. He's also decided he wants to play soccer in college. No chance he'll play D1. Right now we're just trying to use these dreams to keep him focused. His friends follow their parent's alma mater and a few other programs. There is a small UConn presence in our small north Jersey town. Less than UNC and a couple others, but it's there.
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You're lucky that you have a small UConn presence in your small North Jersey borough. I am it in my borough. Nearly everyone is Rutgers fan as there is a local link to that school and I have shared many a beers over who had the worst AD - UConn with Hathaway or Rutgers with Hermann. Most are shocked that RU got into the B1G and accept that it was location, TV dollars, and AAU status that got them in. The best though was showing-up to a Rec baseball practice in 2014 wearing everything I could find with UConn on it. One of my fellow coaches took one look at me, through off his U Kentucky (he was from NJ & became a Wildcat fan while in the Army based in Ft. Knox, which is actually a lot closer to Louisville than Lexington) hat off in disgust and went home without saying a thing to me.
 
Mr. Conehead said:
You're lucky that you have a small UConn presence in your small North Jersey borough. I am it in my borough. Nearly everyone is Rutgers fan as there is a local link to that school and I have shared many a beers over who had the worst AD - UConn with Hathaway or Rutgers with Hermann. Most are shocked that RU got into the B1G and accept that it was location, TV dollars, and AAU status that got them in. The best though was showing-up to a Rec baseball practice in 2014 wearing everything I could find with UConn on it. One of my fellow coaches took one look at me, through off his U Kentucky (he was from NJ & became a Wildcat fan while in the Army based in Ft. Knox, which is actually a lot closer to Louisville than Lexington) hat off in disgust and went home without saying a thing to me.
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Bergen County UConn viewing at Millers', ABG, The Office or the like some time.
 
HoopsFan21 said:
What's crazy about TX high schools is that there are two school districts building $60+ million football stadiums right now. Quite the HS arms race going on there with who can build a bigger more extravagant stadium. Anyone that thinks football is going away any time soon needs to visit the south where it is ingrained in their culture, unlike up here.
Expand ...

Very True... here, the school district (about 1/3 the size of CT) is looking to build a new high school with a 23,000 stadium for the football team. I was at the board meeting and asked them if they will spend the $$ on academics. They thought I committed a crime...
 
Chuck said:
Bergen County UConn viewing at Millers', ABG, The Office or the like some time.
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Thanks. I don't even think there is an UConn Alumni network in North Jersey. I've been to the Office in Ridgewood as its only about 20 minutes away and I can take 'back roads' there. Miller's in Paramus is right at the Route 17/Route 4 interchange, which I avoid like the plague unless it is a Friday. ABG = Allendale Bar & Grill? My kids like watching UConn games, so that limits my bar opprtunities. When I go out, I usually just hit the local watering hole in my borough as I know everyone there, even if they are Rutgers fans for the most part. They're respectful tough, just friendly teasing. Been though worse living in and around Boston for 15 years as a proud Yankees fan. During baseball season, the local bar is cool though as the owner has some long-term ties to the Yankees and some of the team from the 80's and 90's who are still local stop by. Even heard that a that some kid who has a place up Skyline on Greenwood Lake stopped by once.
 
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