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Recently Newsweek magazine published its annual Top Schools issue where it lists the best high schools in the U.S.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12532668/site/newsweek/

Just like U.S. News and World Report's annual college guide, it's important to read the fine print. Especially when examining HOW schools get rated. The criteria on which the schools are judged are not necessarily the tools a parent needs to determine which school is best for their child.

For example, one criterion the Newsweek people use is how many of a given high school's students take Advanced Placement classes. While AP classes are supposed to be rigorous, college-level courses, many schools nowadays are shying away from offering AP classes, seeing them as elitist or even irrelevant. Many private prep schools no longer offer them at all. The argument seems to be that ALL students are capable of AP rigor, so why not offer rigorous courses across the board and not solely to AP students.

Speaking as a former teacher of AP English Literature and Composition, I would agree. Though there ARE benefits to AP classes, the longer I taught them the more I felt that ALL my students should be getting that same course content and rigor. Not just my third period AP class.

There have even been lawsuits in certain states aimed at making AP more available in under-resourced schools.

It all brings us inevitably back to standards. If we maintain high standards for ALL students - which is the goal of leaving no child behind - then all students deserve a challenging high school curriculum. Look at other countries like France where a high school diploma is the equivalent of our bachelor's degree in the U.S.

For more on the AP controversy:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12535969/site/newsweek/