The Daily Independent carried an article on April 25 entitled “Report: BASIS Peoria Tops Best Public High Schools List.”
The annual U.S. News’ Best High Schools rankings of nearly 18,000 high schools in 50 states and the District of Columbia were just announced. These schools were ranked on six factors based on their performance on state assessments and how well they prepare students.
Across the whole USA, BASIS Peoria was rated the best in the nation. So overall, how did Arizona high schools’ rate? Very well. Arizona had 12 schools in the top 100 high schools. While there are other means of evaluating school performance, this is a nationally recognized one.
If each state had an equal number of schools in the top 100, we would expect to have two of our schools in the top. We had 12. That is six times the average for states to have.
California likes to brag that it knows what is best for everyone. So how did California schools do compared to Arizona? California has 11 in the top 100. The great state of California has fewer schools in the top 100 than Arizona. How can that be?
California has over 3,000 high schools. Arizona has less than 1,000. One would expect that California would have three times or more schools in the top 100 as Arizona.
These annual ratings confirm that there are education leaders in Arizona who know what it takes to have successful high schools meeting today’s needs.
There are leaders in Arizona that know it takes, at a minimum, the following for education success: Students who are committed and motivated to gain knowledge and skills, Parents who support their children in achieving education success; Teachers who are very well qualified in their field; and a positive learning environment where the student is being educated.
When some people discuss school performance, often racial and ethic differences of the students is proposed as determining poor performance and good performance. Yet, the data in the US News ranking of Arizona Top Schools shows that some schools had high proportions of Asian, some with high proportions of White and one with a high proportion of Hispanics.
There are education leaders in Arizona that know the issue is not racial in nature, it is: motivating students, having strong parent support for the education of their students, highly qualified teachers and a student learning environment that breeds success in education.
May the rest of the education leaders and citizens in Arizona learn from those in their profession who know what it takes for education success.
