Academic Magnet 7th in U.S.High school improves on previous ratings By Diette Courrégé (Contact)
The Post and Courier
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Academic Magnet High School has continued its scholastic dominance by ranking as Newsweek's seventh-best public high school in the country. 
Mic Smith Andrea Sassard, 18, (right) and classmate Muyi Li, 16, work together in AP biology class Monday at Academic Magnet High School. Newsweek has ranked Academic Magnet the seventh-best high school in the country. The North Charleston school improved its ranking on the magazine's list from the past two years when it was named it the nation's 11th- and 10th-best public high school. The magnet school also has been ranked 27th in U.S. News & World Report's first list of America's Best High Schools. Newsweek's ranking system is based on the total number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate or Cambridge tests given at a school divided by the number of seniors graduating in May. No other Lowcountry school was included in Newsweek's ranking of more than 1,300 schools nationwide, and the next closest South Carolina school on the list was Eastside High School in Greenville at No. 342. Academic Magnet steadily has improved its score on Newsweek's challenge ranking system, going from 5.8 to 7.2 last year to 7.3 this year. Many said the recognition is validation of the hard work by Academic Magnet students and teachers. Top of the classThe complete list of the 1,300 top U.S. high schools as compiled by Newsweek magazine The school begins preparing students for AP courses during their freshman year, interim Principal Carol Tempel said. Students are required to take at least four AP courses before they graduate, but many students take more AP courses than the school requires. Students are willing to push themselves and work at higher levels, she said. "I think this is good for teachers and students to know that the work they are putting in is recognizable," she said. "I think we're doing a lot with the students that we have." Newsweek's top 10The following is a list of the top-10 schools ranked by Newsweek magazine: 1. BASIS Charter in Tucson, Ariz. AP biology teacher Laura Eicher said she continually has to study to keep up with the constant questions students ask, and they relish any challenge she issues. "I do feel like it's the pinnacle of places you can teach," she said. "They're that good." Sophomore Killian Castner said what separates Academic Magnet from other schools is the culture of the school. Students are academically oriented and focused on doing well, he said. Still, Academic Magnet doesn't appear to be the type of school the Newsweek's ranking system is trying to recognize. The system is designed "to recognize schools that challenge average students and not magnet or charter schools that draw only the best students in their areas," according to the magazine's Web site. The system "is designed to honor schools that have done the best job in persuading average students to take college level courses and tests," according to the site. Newsweek's list did not include magnet or charter high schools with an average SAT score above 1,300 on the reading and math sections or an average ACT score above 29. At least 17 top schools were not included on the top schools list, including the South Carolina Governor's School for Science and Mathematics in Hartsville, but Academic Magnet's scores were not high enough to exclude it from the list. Reach Diette Courrégé at dcourrege@postandcourier.com or 937-5546. |
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Comments
This article has 21 comment(s)
Posted by SuzieQJones on May 20, 2008 at 6 a.m. (Suggest removal)
It is nice to read something positive about South Carolina schools.
Posted by abitskeptical on May 20, 2008 at 6:17 a.m. (Suggest removal)
So far, 3 of our children have graduated this school. It is one of Charleston's finest jewels.
Kids will usually rise to the level that is expected of them.
Upon entering this school, the kids know they will have to work hard to succeed & they know they will be surrounded by others who will be in the same boat. I believe there is a psychological advantage to that--there are no "lesser" options for the unmotivated.
Posted by sckid2394 on May 20, 2008 at 6:23 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Kudos to Diette Courrégé for pointing out that Magnet shouldn't even be on this list, but they are because of their low SAT scores. It is shocking to me that we are celebrating a magnet school who mandates AP courses and yet cannot get its population to score on ACT and SAT tests at the level that Newsweek expects for this type of school. Having a metric that ranks school solely on the ratio of AP tests given is a farce.
Posted by karmann on May 20, 2008 at 6:32 a.m. (Suggest removal)
You would think that CCSD would like to replicate this program in Charleston County due to the many students who would like to get in. There are many students who don't make the cut, but are very close to the cut off. Another school offering the same type of program would give those students the same opportunity. I'm not talking about watering down the curriculum, but give others who could do just as well with the same offering.
Posted by LiveYourBestLife on May 20, 2008 at 7:28 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Excellent work to those of the Academic Magnet School. Congratulations for bringing challenging education to the LowCountry.
Keep up the good work!
Posted by Chief_SittingBull on May 20, 2008 at 7:48 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Good job!
Posted by Early on May 20, 2008 at 8:14 a.m. (Suggest removal)
It works when you have a cut-off. Under achieving students should not be mixed with over achieving students but, you have the whining parents that their kids didn't make the cut and they want to sue the school system for whatever reason. Anyway, duplication of this program is needed,,,,desperately
Posted by Tammie on May 20, 2008 at 8:51 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I agree with Suzie, it's nice to hear something positive about South Carolina schools for a change. We get such a bad rap regarding our education. Let's hope this builds some kind of momentum and serves as a springboard so that other schools may soon follow suit.
Posted by abitskeptical on May 20, 2008 at 9 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I believe the most important factor in the classrooms is the motivational level of the students.
If the truth be known, I imagine almost all students probably could do honors work.
All might not make an A. Some might struggle a bit more than others, but I believe with the right mind set & dedication, most could pass the honors courses & after 2 years of honors courses most probably could do AP course work as well.
The sad thing is that we have to separate the students to the degree that we do so that those who want a decent education can get it.
I went to private school for 12 years so I cannot compare the public schools from 'back in the day' & now, but my husband attended high school in Columbia in the late 60's & his take is that the honors curriculum today was simply what was expected in the regular classes back then.
Posted by Hutch on May 20, 2008 at 9:48 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Hats off to Academic Magnet for being number 7!
Keeping trying for the number 1 spot.
Posted by newto843 on May 20, 2008 at 10:18 a.m. (Suggest removal)
sckid2394 has a point, the schools test scores were lower than other magnets thus allowing them to make the list. It would have been nice to see at least one of the areas standard public high schools make the cut.
Posted by Cid95 on May 20, 2008 at 11:54 a.m. (Suggest removal)
If they left 17 schools off because of higher achievements, then it sounds like the school in question (which didn't exist when I went to public schools in Charleston County) is number 24 in the nation. Still pretty good though, something they should be proud of.
Posted by scdog on May 20, 2008 at 12:23 p.m. (Suggest removal)
It's true AMHS just fell short of the national SAT average. However, the SAT scores are not a reliable method to judge a school quality and I'm sure among magnet schools of the same student population, AMHS would rank just as high. Many magnet schools in other states have 50-150 students instead of 500+ students. This can greatly skew the results of SAT cutoffs. As a graduate of AMHS, I'm greatful of the opportunities that the school gave me. This school rose from obscurity to national prominance in a little more than a decade.
Posted by eyfigueroa on May 20, 2008 at 1:58 p.m. (Suggest removal)
"Kids will usually rise to the level that is expected of them.
Upon entering this school, the kids know they will have to work hard to succeed & they know they will be surrounded by others who will be in the same boat. I believe there is a psychological advantage to that--there are no "lesser" options for the unmotivated."
ABSOLUTELY!!!!
Posted by jsks on May 20, 2008 at 3:22 p.m. (Suggest removal)
SCKid has a point albeit not a very good one. High School test scores are poor indicators of a students future success in college. Tests are one dimensional. Having worked directly with Academic Magnet students and their teachers, I can tell you that they are successful because they focus on the "whole education" of a student rather than the numbers and test scores. When I was in HS, nothing prepared me more for college level coursework than AP Biology and AP English. The coursework was challenging, it was new and we were allowed to be creative. When we can excite a student and peak his or her interest in learning as oppose to memorizing, the student begins to look at their education differently. I would be willing to bet that if we tracked the success of Academic Magnet students after college, we would see they are more civic oriented and more well rounded individuals even though they didn't score as high as their counterparts on some of the standardized tests.
Posted by harlanh001 on May 20, 2008 at 5:49 p.m. (Suggest removal)
This argument that the test scores do not matter is laughable! Of course they do. We live in a world of benchmarks, this study is insanely flawed because it includes only one performance benchmark -- the SAT cut off. It should without the shadow of a doubt include the passing rate for these AP exams, because a college does not care how many exams you take, if you don't sufficiently perform on any of them!
What Newsweek did here is based their calculations on the basis of capacity, meaning that the that school mandates a set number of AP exams from it's set number of pupils will become highly ranked.
So let me propose something, let's get a normal Charleston HS on the list... say Burke. Well it's a failing school -- it's debatable how much schooling actually occurs there -- but hey it can make the top ten... So here is the guide to a great school in the eyes of Newsweek Magazine:
1)Make each student take at least 4 AP exams (hell, they don't even have to be enrolled in an AP class, and in the State of SC they don't have to pay for it)
2)Make the graduating class really small (so that when the number of AP exams administered is divided by the # of seniors, the quotient is inflated)
3) (this important!) Make sure that students don't collectively perform too well on the SAT.
Posted by GG on May 20, 2008 at 6:45 p.m. (Suggest removal)
"The system is designed "to recognize schools that challenge average students and not magnet or charter schools that draw only the best students in their areas," according to the magazine's Web site."
I thought the Academic Magnet School had a selection process that chooses only the best and brightest students.
So why in the heck did this school get selected?
Wando High School should have been on this list again this year since it does challenge ALL its students and has a higher pass rate on AP exams than AMS.
Posted by Native_Ink on May 20, 2008 at 8:27 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Just judging from the names of the schools in the top ten, ALL of them are either magnet or charter schools. How does Newsweek get off saying they don't pick these types of schools for their list?
Posted by mrsmomofthree on May 20, 2008 at 9:49 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Congratulations AMHS!!
Too bad we can't improve all Charleston county schools. The schools in the county are going down the tubes. My kids are in magnet schools but will not attend the middle school in Charleston county because they are horrible. We are moving the administrator from one of the worst middle schools to the academic magnet. HMM?? Great idea?
Charleton County needs to take a hard look at the schools. They suck!! They allow the discipline problems to run the school and the good kids pay the price. I have raised my children to be well behaved and try their best. They have never been in trouble in school and have respect for their teachers and others around them. It has been a big challenge some days. We need to take our schools back from those who send their kids to school so they don't have to deal with them.
Posted by asdpe on May 20, 2008 at 11:46 p.m. (Suggest removal)
harlanh001 is on the right track. It's ludicrous to rank schools based on the number of AP tests attempted but not the passing rate. So many schools (not saying AMHS does this, because I don't know that for a fact) just push kids into AP who are not prepared and will not be successful, but because it makes the school look good.
But on that same note, did you know that many states do this same thing when it comes to the SAT? Some states, who perenially rank at the bottom of national lists of SAT averages (ahem.....South Carolina), routinely encourage/persuade/force kids to take the SAT. Even those kids who might not be college-bound, and have not taken appropriate coursework in HS to prepare them for this test. No wonder our average scores are so low! In other states, though, only the very top few percent of HS students take it, so you can imagine that their average score is higher. But what if we ranked the states based on how many kids took the SAT? WOO HOO, we'd be in first place!
Posted by scdog on May 21, 2008 at 8:11 a.m. (Suggest removal)
The point that was being made is that SAT scores average are not a good indicator of a SCHOOL RANKING. I was not talking about individual performance even though that's debatable. The issue with wando is that they only select a few people to take the AP tests and that's why their test scores are so much higher in AP exams. If AMHS picked the top students from each AP class to take the AP exam then I assure you AMHS would have a 100 pass rate and average of 5. Also, keep in mind some students at wando are only taking one AP class at a time and can concentrate on only that class. Whereas at AMHS I've heard of people taking 8 AP exams in one year.