Niche has updated its ranking of high schools. The website boasts unique insight into schools to help students and families “compare educational outcomes across schools and districts.”
In their 2016 ranking of Massachusetts public high schools, they moved Algonquin up a notch to 22nd best in the state.
This time around they awarded the school the following grades:
A+ Academics
A Administration & Policies
A Educational Outcomes
A+ Extracurriculars
A- Food
A Health & Safety
A Resources & Facilities
A+ Sports & Fitness
C+ Student Culture & Diversity
A+ Teachers
Of course, I always take rankings with several grains of salt. Each organization claims to have the ultimate methodology. Niche’s explanation for theirs is complex, including statistics, reports, reviews and surveys. (Click here for details.)
Still, it’s always nice to get a good report. And I know that many of you like to see how we compare with the neighbors.
Some will be annoyed that Hopkinton outranked us again (though they slid by two spots). But other bordering towns’ public schools came in lower.
While we barely moved, some neighbors shifted dramatically. Westborough is now nipping at our heels. But more significant were the leaps of progress for Marlborough and Framingham, contrasted by Ashland’s and AMSA’s slides:
For the state:
14. Hopkinton (was 12)
17. AMSA (was 4)
22. Algonquin (was 23)
23. Westborough (was 28)
61. Marlborough High School (was 116)
65. Framingham (was 99)
70. Ashland (was 49)
So, how can rankings shift so dramatically? Unlike other organizations that rely on statistics and test scores, Niche also heavily weighs online reviews and student survey results.
Any grading system that includes subjective grades for Culture and Diversity should not be paid attention to even for a minute. That is plain and simple a form a discrimination and a form of adolescence in itself to say we need more of anything related to gender, skin pigmentation color or religion. Scratch it off the list and ARHS is #1! Congrats students and staff. When fully 90% of the students graduate with a B average or better and scores of 1600+ SAT’s and 26+ ACT’s we are doing something right collectively. We have every club available to kids these days, and on average you can not beat all of our collective sports programs.
I won’t bother to debate your philosophy. (Except to point out that the category isn’t just on diversity, it also includes feedback on “culture” which some gave the school high marks for.)
But I do have to tell readers that your “fact” is wrong. Removing the diversity grade doesn’t move us up to #1.
I don’t know if our ranking would be higher or lower if that was removed. But I do know that at least Dover-Sherborn, Weston and Hopkinton would still outrank us. Their grades in that category were lower or the same as ours. (Those are just some I looked at. I don’t have time to look at all 21 higher on the list.)
Rankings are heavily influenced by the feedback through surveys and online reviews. Which is why that although Algonquin’s SAT scores beat Hopkinton’s (and ACTs tied), they ranked higher in the category of Educational Outcomes.
As I said in my post, I always take these rankings with several grains of salt.