Guest MINDSETTER™ Patrick Crowley: The Trouble With Ranking High Schools

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Patrick Crowley, GoLocalProv Guest MINDSETTER™

 

School rankings stories always arouse consternation and intrigue among a certain circle of commentators and would be education experts. In reality they are of little real value. Rankings stories simply reinforce misunderstandings about the state of our education in general and tend to validate already shaped opinions. Said another way, the place where “we” rank and where “you” rank is more relevant than “why” you rank where on the list.

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I’m sure the good folks at Babson College who developed the criteria for the ranking system GoLocalProv used for their story did so with pure intentions – in other words, they were not trying to game the system to show one community or type of school out performed another for ulterior motives. It is, however, a matter of starting perspective. One need simply review the splash page for the Babson College website (www.Babson.edu) to see how they proudly display their own various “rankings” from this or that news source to see how important they see rankings and to what end – as a draw for potential customers, IE, students. Babson is a business college, and they are marketing services to potential clients in a competitive marketplace; so a valid question to ask is: are the “rankings” of Rhode Island best schools a marketing device for a vendor or a tool for improving education? The answer will depend on the perspective you bring to the debate, not the information presented in the rankings.

Educations rankings are also fraught with political peril. On May 9th, education expert Diane Ravitch wrote on her blog about how education rankings frequently only tell half the story, seemingly for political or partisan purposes. In Ravitch’s words, “this description of U.S. Education is a pack of lies that smears our nation.” I think it’s worse. If you really care about changing things in the best interests of students, playing around with numbers and hoping people won’t notice doesn’t lend itself to productive dialogue.

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Whenever these rankings stories are published I am reminded of the quote from the scientist Albert Einstein: “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.” Whatever matrix and quadratic equation we develop; no matter how many spreadsheets and data runs are produced; and no matter how antiseptic and bias-neutral these lists purport to be, they can never capture those special moments that bring teachers, education support professional, administrators, and even the bus drivers and custodians back to school every day despite the overwhelming workload and deepening public skepticism of the value of their work.

Every teacher has that day when the below average student, maybe the failing student, comes into the classroom beaming with a smile from ear to ear, with a paper in her hand with a grade in red ink on it that says “C-“. Rather than seeing this as a defeat, or as an acceptance of mediocrity, for this young woman, this is an accomplishment, because it is a testament to a road long travelled, to hard word and study, despite obstacles, and maybe hunger and cold and loneliness. To the list makers, it is still just a C- and doesn’t get you any extra points on their marketing list. To the student and the teacher, this was a life changing event.

You tell me, what’s more important?

 

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