Jonathan, until the electorate cares about education and holds elected officials accountable for their allocation of funds when it comes to education, I do not have much hope.  I remember hearing former Hamilton County Commissioner, Dr. Paul Nolan, quoted on television one evening as he lamented the lack of concern among the general public for placing education higher on the list of priorities.  He sighed and said disgustedly, "As long most folks have a tv set, a six-pack, and fishin' pole, I think they are satisfied."  At the time, I thought he was too cynical, but I am starting to fear he was right.

I think our state and local population is more concerned about building roads and prisons than adequately funding education.

Joanie 

-----Original Message-----
From: Jonathan McNair <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Wed, 3 May 2006 16:14:35 -0400
Subject: [UTCSTAFF] Newsweek ranking of top 1100 public high schools

For what it is worth:

Newsweek has been ranking public high schools for several years on how well they prepare students for college and beyond. In this year's ranking of the top 1139 public high schools, there are only 4 schools in Tennessee. Two of these are in Nashville, one in Franklin, and at 1099, one in East Tennessee (Dobbins-Bennett in Kingsport). One ranked in the top 100, a feat to be celebrated; two in the top 500.

Texas, California, and Maryland had numerous schools in the list, and other states had several at least. 

Certainly a Newsweek ranking does not mean a school is great fore every student, nor does absence from this list mean a school is bad.

But it does raise questions as to why Tennessee had so few ranked schools, three of the four being in one metropolitan area. I do not know how Newsweek gathered or processed data to make the rankings, other than that they did consider economic status (students on lunch subsidy) and also considered whether schools offered and how many students took AP and IB classes. They found that some schools in lower income areas are promoting AP classes to their students with some success.

With a new superintendent of Hamilton County schools, and with local county commissioner elections just completed, and with an active chapter of Stand for Children in the state advocating for better public education, it will be interesting to see what happens locally. And it would seem important for UTC to have a lively interest in local and regional public schools, as I know some, perhaps many, of us do.

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Dr. Joanie Sompayrac
UC Foundation
Associate Professor of Accounting
Assistant Director, University Honors 
UT-Chattanooga

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