US News and World Report: America’s Best High Schools 2010 Criteria

Dublin High School met two of three criteria for a Silver Medal of Recognition in the US News and World Report America’s Best High School list for 2010.  OneDublin.org corresponded with US News and World Report (email below) on the criteria and Dublin High School’s progress towards recognition.  The most recent US News and World Report analysis (detailed below) used Dublin High’s API from 2007-8 of 798.  Dublin High’s API jumped dramatically in 2008-9 to 842, approaching the level outlined below.

—– Forwarded Message —–
From: “Paul Gazzerro”
Cc: “Bob Morse” , “Lucy Byrd” , “Elizabeth Putze”
Sent: Wednesday, December 30, 2009 2:35:05 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific
Subject: Re: Dublin High and the 2010 America’s Best High Schools list

Thank you for your interest in our selection criteria. I served as the lead analyst, and have been asked to respond to your inquiry. First of all, please allow me to apologize for the delay; we receive many inquiries, and it takes some time to ensure that all are researched and answered thoroughly.

The short answer to your question is that Dublin’s performance for the 2007-08 school year did not make the threshold we set for step 1 of our multi-step methodology. Had Dublin met step 1 this year, it would have earned a Silver medal of recognition. Please allow me to explain how the methodology works in order to better indicate how Dublin High fared against the selection criteria.

Overview of Best High Schools Method

The way in which we evaluate schools for America’s Best High Schools is a little different than some rankings. Instead of a general purpose formula that simply weights many different variables and allows for trade-offs, we have created a multi-step method for selection. These steps are based on our core philosophy that underlies the selection method – that the best schools serve all students well.

The three steps of the method are as follows:

1. identifying high schools that serve all students well by achieving performance levels in the core subjects of reading and math on state accountability tests that exceed statistical expectations given their relative levels of student poverty;
2. identifying high schools that serve the least advantaged student groups well by producing proficiency rates on state tests for black, Hispanic, and economically disadvantaged students that exceed state averages for these groups;
3. identifying high schools that provide students with access to a college-level curriculum, measured through participation and performance on AP and/or IB tests.

Basically, the first two are used as screens to filter down to schools that are eligible to be evaluated for their college readiness.

In Dublin’s case, the school did not meet step 1 this year. Had it met step 1, it would have been recognized as one of America’s Best High Schools.

How does step 1 work?
In step 1, we use the state’s performance index – the API, which ranges from roughly 200-1000.
Dublin High’s API was 798 for 2007-08.

These data have been downloaded from the state’s report card website, and so should match publicly reported performance for the school.

We then take these index values and plot them along with each school’s student poverty rate (typically the percentage of students receiving free or reduced price lunches). While the statistical correlation is not perfect, it is by far the strongest predictor of performance, and allows us to create a level playing field for schools by effectively comparing them more to their peers with similar poverty rates than to the state as a whole. The resulting regression line, or expected performance, can be compared to the actual performance index. In order to take into account measurement error to define exceptional performance, we then draw a confidence interval of plus/minus one standard deviation around this expected value. Only those schools that performed at a level that was more than one standard deviation better than expected were considered to have met this criterion. To present this, we created a risk-adjusted performance index, and only values that equal or exceed 1.00 (as in the one standard deviation) meet the criterion.

Dublin’s value was 0.38.

For a visual representation of California schools compared on this risk-adjusted measure, please see the following link, page 13:

http://static.usnews.com/documents/best-highschools/sp-top-performing-high-schools-method-technical-appendix-091204.pdf

Given Dublin’s poverty rate of approximately 2%, it would have needed to achieve a performance index of 862 in order to meet this step, higher than the 798 that it achieved.

I hope that this is a bit clearer, and offers you some specific details as to how Dublin was evaluated using the method. I welcome any additional questions you may have – please feel free to contact me directly.

Best,

Paul

Paul Gazzerro
Director, Analytical Criteria and Research
School Evaluation Services | Standard & Poor’s
55 Water Street, 42nd Floor | New York, NY 10041

[NOTE: In 2008-9 Dublin High School’s API increased from 798 to 842.]