WASHINGTON POST Column: …There are roughly 23,000 high schools in America with about 15 million students. Of these, 165 schools with 136,000 students met the Finn-Hockett criteria for being “selective.” They had to be public schools; competitive admissions had to be based on academic performance; schools had to be free-standing (“not a program or school within another school”); and the curriculum had to be college prep.
Interestingly, these select schools don’t primarily serve upper-middle-class white students. About 30 percent of the students are African American, almost twice the 17 percent black share for all high schools; 35 percent are white (the national share is 56 percent); 13 percent are Hispanic (20 percent) and 21 percent are Asian (5 percent). Almost two-fifths of the students qualify for federally subsidized lunches based on low family income…
Academically, the select schools have two great advantages. First, they can create a climate that favors success. Peer pressure encourages it. Students aren’t disparaged for doing well in class. Second, these schools can attract superior teachers. Finn and Hockett found that 11 percent of teachers have doctorate degrees, while only 2 percent in all high schools do, and 66 percent have master’s degrees, while 46 percent overall do. About a quarter of the teachers have backgrounds in business, government, technology or the military… (more)
EDITOR: J. B. McCaskey High School provides a school within the high school based upon International Baccalaureate standards. This is perhaps one of the reasons for its outstanding debate team that took second place in state competition last year, although the Lancaster Newspapers took little note.
Congratulations to the McCaskey debate team.
A little research will show that the Finn-Hockett criteria eliminated “schools within a school” programs and the like (exit McCaskey).
Once again, competition based enrollments garner the best success. A colleague, educated in the UK, once told me student grades were published on school bulletin boards weekly for all to see. A motivator if ever I heard of one.
EDITOR: “Finn-Hockett criteria” for its study did not include “schools within a school”, that is all.
Per its web site: “Third, it’s self-contained, not a program or school within another school. Hundreds of U.S. high schools contain academies, magnet or specialized programs, schools within the school, or distinctive course sequences that are selective or application based. Our list, however, is limited to schools where all enrolled students are selected through an admissions process.”