Serious doubt placed on validity of magazine’s high school rankings
By Paul Takahashi, Las Vegas Sun
U.S. News and World Report is looking into a local high school’s ranking as the nation’s 13th-best public high school after its principal questioned the data used by the national magazine.
U.S. News’ Best High Schools rankings were released Tuesday, with Green Valley High School in Henderson earning a lofty ranking among the nation’s top high schools.
But even before the school could celebrate, Green Valley Principal Jeff Horn questioned the validity of U.S. News’ list of best schools, pointing to several incorrect data points that are key criteria in the methodology used in determining the rankings.
The U.S. News rankings showed that the Henderson school had 477 students and 111 teachers, making its student-teacher ratio 4-to-1. The school also had a 100 percent passing rate on the Advanced Placement exam, according to the rankings.
Green Valley actually has 2,850 students, a student-teacher ratio closer to 24-to-1 and a 64 percent AP passing rate, Horn said. He added that he believed the data for several other Las Vegas high schools were incorrect in the U.S. News rankings.
Furthermore, U.S. News’ state profile of Nevada had several incorrect data points.