America's Best High School

[Brad Hutchison]

Someone just sent me this Newsweek article. I always take these lists with a grain of salt, but LHS ranked 229th in the country and 6th in Ohio. I know so many people that consider a move to the near west side, and always look at Rocky River over Lakewood because of the schools. I'm not saying RR has bad schools, but they are nowhere on this list of 1600 high schools nationally.

http://www.newsweek.com/feature/2010/am ... /list.html

[Danielle Masters]

That is good news indeed. An for me it's especially nice to hear as I'll have a high schooler in the fall. This is more evidence of what a fine school district we have.

[Brad Hutchison]

FWIW, the ratings are predominately based on AP and IB exams, both in terms of % of seniors that passed at least one, and the ratio of # of exams taken to # of students in the senior class.

It's also interesting to note that Lakewood has one of the highest percentages of subsidized lunch eligibility in the ratings, at 30%. Of the top 20 Ohio schools, only one other was over 20%.

[sharon kinsella]

We knew that. LHS is a dynamite school.

[Grace O'Malley]

According to an online story, Newsweek apparently made an error and only ranked Lakewood High in Lakewood Colorado at that 229 position. It did not mean our own LHS and according to the NW editor, he "has no data on that school," referring to our LHS.

But that's OK. I don't need some artificial ranking system to make me appreciate Lakewood High. I have my kids to prove that LHS is great.

[Brad Hutchison]

According to an online story, Newsweek apparently made an error and only ranked Lakewood High in Lakewood Colorado at that 229 position. It did not mean our own LHS and according to the NW editor, he "has no data on that school," referring to our LHS.

Not sure what to make of that. When you click on Lakewood at 229 in the rankings, it takes you to a profile of Lakewood, OH High School. I have no idea whether or not they made a mistake, but they clearly "have data" on our LHS:

Lakewood High School is a public high school located in Lakewood, Ohio, west of Cleveland. The school colors are purple and gold. The mascot is the Ranger Man. The school is currently a member of the Northeast Ohio Conference. During the past years, many improvements have been made in the physical plant of the school. Improvements have included the planetarium, reading center, improved academic classrooms and offices, a 25 yard pool with separate diving well and natatorium, new cafeterias, a horticulture laboratory, an enlarged library, five computer labs, additional physical educational facilities, and extensive vocational program facilities. A building addition, referred to as "the New Building" was completed in 1970, and was necessary because of increased enrollment which included bringing the inclusion of the ninth grade in the high school. The most recent addition is the music wing which accommodates both the vocal and instrumental programs at the school. The school underwent renovation which started late 2007 and is now completed. The curriculum at LHS is broad and offers a wide selection of courses in technical, vocational, art, home economics, music and business as well as the regular academic fields of English, Science, Mathematics, Languages and Social Studies. Lakewood High School currently offers 12 AP courses. The school's newspaper, the Lakewood Times, won the the Pacemaker Award, in 2000 and 2001.

[Michael Deneen]

In the words of the immortal Emily Latela, "never mind".

[Jim O'Bryan]

Someone just sent me this Newsweek article.

Newsweek?

I thought they went out of business.



.

[Dee Martinez]

The school profiles were directly cribbed from Wikipedia.
This was apparent by reading the LHS (OUR LHS) profile. NEW cafeterias? And the construction started in 2007 is only HALF-complete.
This is more of an embarrassment to Newsweek than the people who are running the schools.

[Jim O'Bryan]

WOW

This is starting to get some traction. Over the weekend as more and more information came
to light about the entire process, many Lakewoodites are MAD.

Stay tuned...


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[Jim O'Bryan]

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[marklingm]

This is probably best for another thread, but the following Society of Professional Journalists post entitled, "Saving the Fourth Estate…or, Why we have to do something" is worthy of discussion: http://networkedblogs.com/5dUA6.

Democracy needs professional journalists ... and civic journalists.

[Paul Schrimpf]

Speaking as a journalist, the lack of legit news sources is appalling. Dropping revenues have led to reductions in staffing, which leads to lazy/cut rate research and reporting. Lists like these have gone from a virtually meaningless curiosity often based on revenue to out and out damaging fraud.

Jim, your story in the Observer was awesome.

[marklingm]

Jim's article is on the front page at http://lakewoodobserver.com/read/6/13/newsweek-burned-in-lakewood.

Cleveland Scene Magazine's response is at http://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2010/07/02/newsweek-not-very-apologetic.

[marklingm]

Another responsive post by Rebecca McKinsey at http://rebeccamckinsey.wordpress.com/2010/07/05/newsweek-we-better-do-much-better-next-time/.