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Only one of Boston Magazine's 50 'Best Public Schools in Boston' is actually in Boston
By adamg on Tue, 08/26/2014 - 10:58am
And you can probably figure out which one made the list. Would it really have killed them to call it the 50 "Best Public Schools in Greater Boston" (or even "Eastern Massachusetts," given that they include schools in Bolton, Newburyport and North Attleboro)?
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I took a state exam at Boston
I took a state exam at Boston English a few years back and when I went on a bathroom break took a gander at the GPA scores they had on the wall... average was something like 1.2 with many grades in the 0.1 range. How the hell can so many perform so poorly?
Thinking to my high school
Thinking to my high school years of peers who perform in that category (my high school was not Boston English, but we had lots of students that did perform that poorly, hidden by also many students who did well). I asked myself that question to myself and my friends and classmates (and I sucked enough in some subjects over the 4 years that I would be in some of those classes). A good part is they really did not care.
Regardless if the system made them not care or just got themselves there, what I seen is those students would force the teacher to literally spend 1/4 to 1/2 of the class period trying to settle them down or end tangential conversations. That one example is probably a good starting example of how it can get that low.
Par for the course with that
Par for the course with that magazine.
Nailed
it. The Puff pastry of Boston print.
Aaaa they did!
"Our exclusive ranking of the top public schools in Greater Boston." - See more at: http://www.bostonmagazine.com/best-public-schools-boston-2014-top-50/#st...
Maybe they added that
After hearing the complaints from the Center for the Easily Annoyed. Or maybe we were so annoyed by the headline, we missed the subhead (in any case, the headline is still wrong).
I'd be more annoyed
by the performance of BPS.
Well done Latin
Latin -
highest # of students per class
highest student to teacher ratio
3rd highest expenditure per pupil (which is actually probably system numbers not Latin only which is probably a fraction of that)
Still - something's wrong here. Hats off to the kids - you are seriously disadvantaged in resources but you come out near the top of the rankings. Well done Latin.
Sub headline of "Our
Sub headline of "Our Exclusive ranking of the top 50 Public Schools in Greater Boston" not specific enough for you? Making a list is always going to ruffle a few feathers, particularly a city of Boston partisan like yourself, but I'd be willing to bet that only 1 public school within the city limits made it into the top 50 by the chosen metrics. Is that really all that hard to believe?
You hit on a point that's probably more important
Than "Boston" vs. "Greater Boston." Which is why only one school in Boston made the list. What does that say about Boston schools?
Charters
Would be interesting to see how the charters make out in this ranking system.
Also
the graduation rates of charters. Very low numbers compared to who entered the high school as freshmen.
4 years yes, 6 years no
Higher standards:
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/05/21/charter-schools-outperform-t...
sorry kathode...
...but, if you remove the three exam schools, the BPS graduation and attrition rates are often far worse than Boston's charters.
Charters were included
Full rankings here. As I explained elsewhere in these comments, I think these rankings have little value, but the comparison is easy enough to do.
Generally Agree
Especially across communities. I was more interested in how the charters did against other BPS high schools. Well - not great - rankings slightly below average - but still markedly above BPS.
One thing that's always interesting is how much money we spend - especially in light of another comment out here about how poor our facilities are relative to other schools in our spending category. I know special ed makes up a portion of our higher costs- but by no means all - and most of those schools above us get nowhere near the external funds that is showered upon BPS.
Ads
What they lack in reporting they more than make up for with beautiful full page color ads.
Its called
AdBlocker Plus, learn how to use the world wide web!
Full page ads?
Ad Blocker Plus does an absolutely crap job on the print edition, which is where one finds "full page color ads."
*whiff*
That snarky Millenial anon above you doesn't even know that magazines come in paper format.
I kind of miss that weird ad
they used to run every month for years for some kind of hair salon treatment (in Wellesley? Newton?) showing the same model every time--an older woman with dyed blonde hair that looked like it had been zapped by lightning. I pray that she's been allowed to move gracefully into retirement and maybe let some gray in.
Ads pay for content. How do
Ads pay for content. How do you think Adam can bring us this fine site? Using ad blocker isn't that different than torrenting music. Stealing is stealing.
Other sources of revenue
It's possible the Center for the Easily Annoyed has other revenue streams.
nonsense
This pervasive. Boston.com is obsessed with rounding up things fifty miles from Boston Proper and calling it Boston.
I once knew a girl who grew up in Watertown and still called herself a Bostonian. One day when we went into Faneuil Hall, she admitted she'd never been to Faneuil Hall. She knew very little about the city of which she claimed to be a citizen (and of which she did not actually live or come).
This is indicative of a larger, rather annoying aspect of Greater Boston (which I believe should be very limited to Brookline, Cambridge, Somerville, etc. - towns that are contiguous to Boston Proper.), which is that many people who want to identify with Boston don't actually know or love the city. One doesn't have to live in Boston Proper to enjoy it or know it, but more and more, the people I encounter who want to be known as Boston fit something along these lines: born at MGH, grew up in Worcester, went to Boston a couple times on field trips, attended Zoo Mass, got drunk at Whiskey's a lot during college, now lives far from the city and complains about the Pike every day. Aside from rooting for Boston sports teams (thankfully, three are actually within city limits), there's very little that's Boston about them. I'm a transplant and I know and dearly love the city of Boston quite well, and even *I* am annoyed at places like Framingham or Newburyport or Stoughton getting lumped into "Greater Boston."
I live in Salem (MA, not NH - which I have to clarify often) and would never even think of saying I live in the Boston area or even Greater Boston. I'm a New Englander, I live on the North Shore, I live in Eastern Massachusetts - those are about the only honest descriptor. This "Greater Boston" nonsense has gotten out of hand.
Watertown borders Brighton.
Watertown borders Brighton.
Otherwise, nice rant.
c'mon
Brighton is not REAL Boston. It basically a college campus.
- The Original SoBo Yuppie
Get out
Get out. Brighton is not Allston.
Brighton still has
Brighton still has neighborhoods with families. Chandler Pond area and surrounding streets is one of the most beautiful parts of the city, and a lot of people don't even know about it. Oak Square is a thriving neighborhood. Same with Faneuil Street and Arlington Street area.
College campuses are the
College campuses are the realest part of Boston there is.
That fact is not at odds with
That fact is not at odds with any statement in the rant.
Census
The US Census says that you live in the Metropolitan Boston Area, which is just another word for Greater Boston. There are several definitions, but they all include a lot of the towns that we're arguing about in here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Boston
Smallest definition is by MAPC, including 101 towns and 3.1 million people.
Largest definition would be the Boston-Worcester-Providence, MA-RI-NH-CT Combined Statistical Area, which extends as far out as Windham County, CT and Belknap County, NH. 8 million people.
My ZIP code, property taxes,
My ZIP code, property taxes, and voter registration say I live in the City of Boston. I couldn't care less what the Census says.
(My, I sure woke up on the argumentative side of the bed today. Apologies in advance, gentle UHub commenters.)
People
from Boston never say they are from Boston. You're from Rozzie, Sout Boston, Dawchesta, Chastown, Brite-n, Hi pahk, Rosberry, Ma-a-pan, Wess Rosberry. Blow ins are from the Sawth End and Back Bay, Beacon Hill and the rest of you people are pink hat Bostonians.
Exactly this. I am also a
Exactly this. I am also a transplant, though living in the city of Boston, and tire of the regional "Bostonians." Most of my coworkers live in a belt between Pawtucket and Foxboro, and have lives that followed a pattern similar to the one you described. Yet, they are all "Bostonians" and I can never be, despite living here since '97... half my life.
Transplants from MA or
Transplants from MA or elsewhere in New England are not the same as transplants from outside of New England.
I wish I could say I've never been to Faneuil Hall, or at least
the lame-assed shopping-mall aspect of it. It's nice to see the historical sights once or twice, do the Freedom Trail, etc. But otherwise successfully avoiding Quincy Market should be a point of civic pride.
Food court too?
If I lived or worked closer - I would take in the food court which has a decent selection - could pretty much care less about the shopping part.
College Advisors?
How does Andover have 8.5? Where'd the other half go?
probably a part timer
I think only Quincy employs bifurcated college advisors
Part-timers?
Maybe they have a part-timer?
To
Lawrence.
What do these ratings measure?
First and foremost, yes, many BPS schools have problems, and in many cases those problems are quite serious. But these rankings really just show us, for the umpteenth time, that if you choose metrics that correlate more closely with socioeconomic status than with quality of instruction you'll end up with a list of "top schools" that are almost entirely in wealthy communities. I'd love to see improvements both in our schools and in the ways that we measure them. Until then, lists like these will just reinforce the notion that if you have the money, you need to move out of the city as soon as your kids are old enough for school.
Ask any kid at Boston Latin
Ask any kid at Boston Latin that travels for sports out to the Dual County League to compare their facilities with the facilities at Concord-Carlisle, Newton South, etc. It's night and day. Not just athletics but overall. Then realize you're talking about the top public high school in Boston that has a private endowment (!!), and even then there's a wide disparity. Then realize the gap between BLS and the other BPS high schools. That's just facilities, which are a reflection of socioeconomic status as you correctly put, never mind the communities around the buildings, which are great places to live that I am not knocking in any way. It's apples to oranges.
Even with all that, there are great schools in BPS that don't sniff lists like this for the reasons you stated. Annoying.
White Stadium is the nicest stadium in the Dual County league...
I think anyway.
Exactly
Best schools for who? I pretty much ignore any "best schools" or "best places to raise a family" or whatever listings, because these things ultimately are looking at factors that are highly correlated to income, and they're not looking at places that are the "best" place for every child or family. It doesn't make sense that a school can be "best" when it would actually be terrible for large numbers of students. For example, can a school that's not wheelchair accessible be a "best" school, when some students can't even get inside? That's not to say that the school isn't providing a good education for some students, but should it really be on any "best schools" list? Shouldn't there be basic minimum standards? Is an all-white school with only white teachers a "best" school for a child who isn't white? Or a child who is white, for that matter?
One glaring omission
My alma mater, Burlington High School, was completely left off the "all public schools" list of 171 public high schools in Greater Boston, even though all other high schools in that area were covered. It ranked #43 in 2012, the last time Boston Magazine ranked public high schools. Did anyone find any other omissions?
Metrics
I would have guess at least 2 (if not 3, possibly including the 3rd exam school) would make the list. I thought the difference (metrically in this case) BLA and BLS are closer and would be reflected in the metrics.
They should have also
They should have also included median household income in the list. Would have seen some significant correlation.
Look at those student-to-teacher ratios. Good luck finding that in BPS. Even Latin is 20:1.
Forget the schools
I can't WAIT to hear the latest fawning and sighing over Chef Barbara Lynch's latest bowel movement, or about Chef Tony Maws' latest run-in with the paparazzi at his new entrails-only restaurant!
(Or am I the only one who thinks there are some serious Fanboy issues going on with that publication and some of our local restaurateurs?)
Eh, it's kinda like all those
Eh, it's kinda like all those Massachusetts-wide lists that, when you look more closely, are more accurately described as "95-percent within 128, with a few within 495, and one down on the Cape."
Boston Magazine is for folks in the burbs
Boston magazine is for folks in the burbs so they feel like they know what is going on in the area they refer to as Boston...I don't think it actually represents what is happening in the city of Boston except for the highly publicized things. I picture stay at home moms in Newton talking about what they read in Boston magazine to each other.....I remember when I lived in Foxboro I used to read it.
Dream schools
Adam, since I went to the only school on the list that's in the city, I share your feeling. To my ear, the title of the list cries out for at least a weasel word. Then again, this is a publication called Boston Magazine, which--despite some very good pieces by writers I enjoy--is often less about reality than selling the dream. And what could be more Bostonian than the dream of moving out with kids to a community boasting highly ranked schools? Unfortunately, the only thing that might be more Bostonian is not being able to make that move. As for buying the dream, I only read the magazine in print while I'm at a supermarket checkout near Jackson Square, and I always put it back on the rack.
Boston Latin:
Given Boston Latin's long-standing reputation for being one of the best, if not the best public school in the city of Boston itself, it's not surprising that it's the only Boston public school that made the best Boston-area schools list, and that the rest of them are all suburban public schools.