Area high schools rank high, low in survey
High schools in the MidHudson Valley ranged in rank from the top 10 percent of all public schools in New York State to the bottom 25 percent, according to the U.S. News & World Report’s 2019 “Best High Schools” survey.
At the top was the Rhinebeck High School at number 102 out of 1,204 in New York and number 1,191 out of 17,245 in the nation. At the bottom were Ellenville High School and Stissing Mountain High School in Pine Plains, both ranked in the bottom 25 percent.
Aldo ranking high was Onteora at 102 in New York and 1,191 in the nation. In the middle range, Kingston ranked 572 in New York and 7,048 in the U.S.; Saugerties was 569 in New York and 7,020 in the country.
The specific ranks of schools in the bottom quarter were not published.
Student-teacher ratio did not seem to affect how well a school performed. And while the demographic “students economically disadvantaged” seemed correlated with a school’s score, it was not a certain predictor.
For example, in the MidHudson area, the number two school, Onteora High School, showed almost twice the number of economically disadvantaged students as did the number three school, New Paltz High School.
Tara Grieb, principal of Stissing, argued that the U.S. News evaluations are “skewed” because they rely so heavily on the number of Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) tests.
“There are a lot of amazing things going on in all schools that their report doesn’t even touch,” Grieb said. Stissing offers two AP courses.
“AP has its merits,” Grieb said, “but on the downside, students pay for the exam and their new college may not accept the credits.” Grieb added that she prefers Stissing’s practice of sending students to Dutchess County Community College for courses.
“That isn’t even counted by U.S. News,” Grieb said
Forty percent of the U.S. News high school assessment rests upon AP and IB participation and scores. Another 40 percent is based on state math and reading assessments. Ten percent is based upon “underserved student performance,” which measures how well schools serve minority groups, and 10 percent rests upon high school graduation rates.
The methodology is explained on the U.S. News website.