Just as the Challenge Index is too limited in its concept of best schools, the U.S. News procedures try to cover too much. The crux of the problem is combining three essentially different criteria (college readiness, overcoming economic disadvantage and minimizing ethnic group disparities) into one ranking. Schools that excel in one aren’t necessarily those that excel in the other(s). Some schools that do the greatest job of preparing their minority students might not have total-school achievement scores that are among the best. Other schools characterized by superlative overall college readiness might score only slightly above average relative to their economic profile. In trying to incorporate “economic disadvantage” and the reduction of ethnic group (minority) achievement gaps together with schoolwide high achievement, the U.S. News ranking risks confounding different educational objectives. Depth and breadth of performance, and exceeding expectations, should be reported separately, rather than conjoined. Separate rankings would be easier to understand, more informative and less disputable—although perhaps less likely to help sell magazines.
Lindsay Andreas on 20 Oct 09I really like this part of the website because it keeps track of current events in economics and gives you related lessons. My understanding is that economic education works best when you give the kids real-life examples. My teacher likes to bring up the healthcare package a lot and it works because the students know that this is a big issue and it puts context to things.
I second this - this is a great resource for incorporating economics into the lesson plans-I really dig a lesson plan here on voter turn-out.
