Across America, public high school administrators and Boards of Education are constantly seeking some sort of national recognition and prestige for their high schools. A badge of honor. A mark of distinction. An affirmation that what they are doing is right and warrants the bloated salaries of the "executive" public school quadrant. Jay Mathews, education writer for the Washington Post and Newsweek has devised such a recognition which he calls his "Challenge Index". The Index, or ranking of "best high schools" is based on a formula which creates a ratio by dividing the number of seniors by the number of students taking AP or IB exams. Mathews does not differentiate between small public magnet schools or large general public high schools, nor does he take into account whether students actually pass the AP or IB exams. The individual school results are reported to Mathews by HS Principals, who Mathews takes at their word to be providing accurate numbers. Mathews claims that he does not count IB and AP exams twice in the same subject given in the same year. However, if you have read this far through this site, you are well aware that HL IB courses are given over a two year period, which allows IB schools to double count HL students who take the AP exam after the first year to supplement their high school transcripts and Mr. Mathews' List. This "allowance" biases Mathews' List in favor of IB as clearly demonstrated by at least two of the IB schools in his top 20.
IS JAY MATHEWS OBJECTIVE?
There is a very clear reason why Mr. Mathews has created this list which schools, IB schools in particular, use to boast of their ranking on home district web pages: http://www.lvcsd.k12.ny.us/parents/newsweek_ranking It is to promote IB as "superior". Why does Mathews, a senior journalist and possibly only education writer in the country to fawn over IB the way he does, so blatantly push this toothless formula on list loving Americans? The answer is simple, to the observant capitalist. Jay Mathews, with his co-author Assistant Director General Ian Hill (yes, the same Ian Hill who served on the Earth Charter education committee) wrote the book: Supertest- How The International Baccalaureate can Strengthen Our Schools. The book is published by Open Court which is owned by IBNA Board member Blouke Carus. Just as Gwen Ifill should have disclosed to the Presidential Debate Commission her writing of the "Age of Obama" before hosting the debate, Newsweek and Mathews should be required to put this disclosure in the heading of its List of Best High Schools each and every year it is released.
Last year, Newsweek's competition, U.S. News & World Reports came out with its own version of Best U.S. High Schools. U.S. News' list uses methodology devised by Standard and Poor which factors in the Pass rate on AP exams. By its own admission, U.S. News was unable to give any favorable ratings to schools which are exclusively IB due to "insufficient data". In May, 2008, Mr. Morse started a blog titled "In Defense of International Baccalaureate". The site is somewhat awkward, and the comments are difficult to navigate, but worth a read if you have nothing else to do. Morse indicated that U.S. News is working closely with IB to try and be able to include IB schools in its next list.
In this blog, Morse stated that the new list was due out in mid-October, but a recent e-mail contact with Morse revealed that not only had he forgotten that he ever said that date, it was now being pushed back to the first week in December. He also revealed that to date, IBO had not produced any more data. In articles published by local newspapers and school districts throughout the country, the standard IB "talking points" and unbridled globalist enthusiasm for the "programme" are spouted ad nauseum. It's "rigorous" and "prestigious" not to mention that it teaches children "to learn how to learn"! Imagine that! Here is a recent press release out of Chattanooga, TN, announcing a district intent on becoming IB K-12. After reading this typical IB rhetoric, anyone who dares to question what IB is really all about feels as though they've been slapped in the face and told, "It's the rigor, stupid!" Mysteriously, many articles which appear on the Internet which have the audacity to mention anything negative relating to the IB vanish without a trace, only to leave the reader with the following message : Error 404 - Page Not Found.
Jay Mathews Discredits his Own List
This news alert issued by TAIB on 12/11/08, may render all of the other items on this page related to the Newsweek's List of Best High Schools created by Jay Mathews - moot.
It took an 800 lb. anvil and having a school with a 2% pass rate on AP exams come out on top of the Newsweek List, to make him see the error of his ways.
His new means of trying to atone for his sins is to create a "Catching Up List" for those schools who still want some sort of national recognition for pushing kids into AP/IB classes that they fail. "They're trying". Please, Jay, spare us. If you really want to create a tool which might be slightly useful for the average American considering which school district to buy a home in:
1. Make a list for magnet schools which is separate from general public high schools. 2. Require at least a 50% pass rate on AP/IB exams for schools to even be considered for the list. 3. Factor in scholarship offers for a senior class - the better the graduates, the more $$ they are going to be offered in scholarships.
"I was also disappointed that Al Franken lost for the same reason. We journalists, all voyeurs, crave entertainment in our news." - Jay Mathews, 11/06/08
How Well Does TAIB Know Jay?
The other day, TAIB received an e-mail from a reader known only as LM from Ronkonkoma, NY. Normally, we would paste the comment under the pro-IB comment section and send off a reply, however this reader left us no e-mail address. Because there was some interesting content and we would really like to respond to this reader, this is as good a spot as any.
Comments: Why do you tout Jay Mathews' anti-IB Mathematics article, and then criticize him as loving the IB in another page on your site because of his Newsweek ranking articles? isn't that a bit hypocritical?
If you actually knew Mr Mathews, you would know he is one of the most skeptical people in DC about the IB and whether it actually benefits students. Go ahead. Call him. Ask him to sit down for a chat. He is leary as to whether or not it works in the school districts that are in nearby MD, VA and DC.
Don't believe me? Then you don't stand behind anything you say, most of which is hogwash anyway.
IB is one of the most rigorously thought out curriculums and assessed evaluations students can go through in the world. AP doesn't come close to the level of scrutiny IB schools must go through the actual IB before they can offer the actual curriculum.
Don't like the curriculum offered? Do you agree with your kids being taught about Hinduism, Marxism and the current conflict in Iraq? The War of 1967? Reading various literary works by Eastern and Western authors? Taking art and music?
Not much different than IB then, except IB is a heck of a lot more challenging, incorporates community service, foreign language, and encourages students and teachers to think outside of the box, to look at local history and events and community, and make the international leap to connect the two.
Well LM, one of TAIB's admins by the same initials did sit down for lunch with Mr. Mathews in June of 2008 (see picture at right). We met in oldtown Alexandria near his office and were joined by another parent from Maryland who was a participant in the Admissions 101 forums. LM of TAIB has also been in e-mail contact with Mr. Mathews for nearly 5 years and is featured in Chapter 45 of his book Supertest. As to why Jay exposed the Math fraud in the Fordham Report, our guess is his conscience caught up with him and as a senior professional journalist, he felt compelled to try and present both sides of the story for the Washington Post. However, that one exposure of fraud fails to counterbalance his blatant bias for IB in many of his other articles, nor does he provide a disclaimer before his articles on IB regarding IBO's co-authorship and publishing of his book Supertest. He is far from one of the most skeptical people in Washington when it comes to IB, in fact, he can be considered IBO's most prominent media mouthpiece in the United States. Jay may be a nice guy and a fun writer, but when it comes to educational ideology, we are on different pages.
We stand behind everything we say. Why don't you tell us about your meeting with Mr. Mathews, when it took place and provide us with an e-mail address to respond before you accuse TAIB of being mostly "hogwash". The rest of your points have already been addressed in one form or another within this site and don't require duplication.
