SSHS again named one of nation’s best

Last week, Newsweek released its 2014 rankings of the nation’s best high schools, once again placing South Side as one of the best in the country — but not without raising a few eyebrows at the school.

Newsweek compiled a list of what it says are the 500 best high schools in the country, placing South Side at 390.

“That’s not why we’re in the business of what we do, but it’s nice to people recognize we have a quality product here in Rockville Centre,” said Superintendent Dr. William Johnson.

According to Newsweek, the scores for schools were tabulated by first looking at scores on standardized tests. Then, the magazine created a College Readiness Score based on enrollment rate, graduation rate, a weighted AP/IB test composite, a weighted SAT/ACT composite, the counselor-to-student ratio and holding power, which is the change in student enrollment from 9th to 12th grade.

The final part of the analysis identified the schools in which economically disadvantaged students performed above the state average in reading and math. Those schools, of which South Side is one, received a gold star next to their rankings.

But the problem with the scores, said SSHS Principal Dr. Carol Burris, is that they seem to be based on erroneous numbers.

“It’s full of errors,” Burris said. “I don’t know where they got their information from.”

According to the Newsweek statistics, South Side places into the 83rd percentile for college-bound students even though 96 percent of graduates go on to college, Burris said. And the school placed in the 64th percentile for graduation rate, even though the graduation rate is close to 98 percent.

“Whether we’re 1 or 400, it doesn’t make sense if the numbers aren’t right,” Burris said. She added that the school has reached out to Newsweek to get clarification on the numbers, and corrections if possible.

“I think some of what it is is that all of these papers are creating their own metrics,” she said, “they’re not grounded in reality and then they go and rank schools.”