Overachieving Schools in Two Different Ways

[XLFD]

On the front page of Friday's City of Ludington Daily News (COLDNews), the local newspaper trumpeted some good news as regards the achievements of local schools as measured by the US News & World Report and their annual ranking of best high schools. At the top of the paper, they boasted in the headline: MCC, LHS recognized in Best High Schools in America list.

The article, which continued on page three, devoted the front page to Mason County Central (MCC) and the focus of the first 24 column inches of the article was how the Scottville school attained and was very proud of the achievement (they had been left off the list prior. Principal Chuck Tuka beams in front of the banner they ordered marking the occasion below.

It's better to be on it than not, but this isn't an exclusive list by any means and MCC just barely made the cut by finishing as the 12,753rd best high school in the nation (449th in Michigan) with an overall score of 26.04, as seen below:

The cutoff between 'best' and 'not-so-best was at the 12,935 national mark. Ludington High Schools was featured in this COLDNews article only on the last eight column inches on page three. Unlike MCC, they had made last year's list and has been a solid finisher among the best schools. Even so, they were still marked as #3990 in the national rankings, #146 in Michigan, and had a 76.86 overall score. That's considerably better than MCC's rankings:

You may have noted that MCC finished third among Ludington area high schools, that means that somebody doing the research at the COLDNews left that fact out, likely Riley Kelley who authored the piece. But let's not forget to assign some of that to Riley's editor, as another county school finished a ways above the featured MCC. Just three miles to the east of MCC, in Custer, the much smaller Mason County Eastern (MCE) schools staked out an impressive feat, putting nearly 2000 high schools between it and MCC (59 in Michigan).

MCE accomplished this feat while having two-thirds of their students qualify as economically disadvantaged, MCC has only two-fifths of their students fit that description, Ludington has only one in three. Such school districts typically find it difficult to compete academically with wealthier districts. Yet, MCE has been doing this regularly, we noted their ascendance on previous studies that showed they were getting the most out of their education dollars years ago.

This oversight of MCE's education achievement, in an article where MCC points at its difficulties in being a smallish, rural, and economically challenged district (MCE beats them in all that too), must have caught the eye of somebody who knew Custer's performance was being ignored. In the next day's newspaper, not at the top of page one, but at the very bottom, crept the headline: MCE ranks among nation's best schools.

Three inches of column told us that MCE ranked second in the area, and that Superintendent Paul Shoup told the COLDNews that it's an honor for the district. Apparently, they do not have the extra money available to buy a banner from US News & World Report, choosing instead to waste that money on educating and feeding their district's kids.

[shinblind]

Maybe someone was embarrassed that Mason County Eastern Math and Reading Performance Rank at #3,576 was higher than Ludington's ranking at #8.051. Maybe achieving this while having twice as many economical disadvantaged students is even more remarkable (66% vs 33%). Also they have  higher graduation rate. (98% vs 88%) 

[XLFD]

My bet is that MCC Superintendent Mount contacted the COLDNews trumpeting the achievement after he took a picture of Principal Tuka in front of their hard-earned banner.  Reporter Kelley perhaps did just enough research to find out Ludington HS also made the list (though fails to notice the huge gap between the two), but not enough to notice that MCC was a bronze medal finisher in the county (again).

It concerns me that MCC, the school I proudly call my alma mater, has let its commitment to excellence drop, and I see the cause of that directly at the very top.  I think it wasn't a coincidence that the high school dropped off the 'best school' ratings list the very school year after they held a much publicized active shooter training, and just barely got on it this time.  I don't pay the local public school to teach the area's children how to become filled with anxiety and feel powerless. 

[Willy]

I don't know how reliable these rankings are or how reliable the authors of the rankings are. I bet there is more graft and under the table money exchanging hands with these studies than in Congress. Besides there are to many areas with questionable gene pools so shallow that their ankles barely get wet. It's up to parents to see what is being taught and how it is presented but most parents now days just want to be their kids buddies so putting pressure on the kids and school officials just isn't going to happen and it seems parents are all to willing to let the lefties teach how up is down and front is back just to get along.