by Scott Jentsch

U.S. News & World Report announced recently its rankings of the "Best High Schools" in Wisconsin and across the United States.

The publication used six measures for its rankings:

• College Readiness (30%)
• Reading and Math Proficiency (20%)
• Reading and Math Performance (20%)
• Underserved Student Performance (10%)
• College Curriculum Breadth (10%)
• Graduation Rate (10%)

New Berlin Eisenhower ranked #5 in Wisconsin and #350 in the United States, and New Berlin West ranked #20 in Wisconsin and #857 in the nation.

The School District was quick to issue a press release (see Resources section) bragging about the results:

“The U.S. News & World Report’s ranking has long been a source of pride for our community, and rightfully so,” Superintendent Joe Garza said. “To consistently have two of the best high schools in the state – along with four incredible elementary schools – helps make New Berlin a destination community year in and year out.

“The rankings are a direct result of our incredible students, staff and families. And with the unwavering support from our families, School Board and the community, we continue to strive to provide the best educational opportunities possible for all students.”

This reponse was lightning-fast, compared to the reaction time of the District when a petition was sent to the Board June 8, 2020 signed by 1,258 alumni, current students, family members, and former members of faculty to address curriculum changes, training, and outreach to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion. It wasn't until February 22, 2021 that the District issued an official response of any kind, and it was in the form of a lengthy slide presentation that didn't address the concerns of the petition directly. It still has not acted (publicly) upon the issues raised in that petition, and there continues to be race-related incidents reported at New Berlin West.

My Take

While it's always fun to get a trophy, it's hard to get too excited when it's from an organization that you only hear about when they get press for pushing out press releases for rankings of schools, hospitals, (fill in the blank). Lots of free publicity from the trophy winners as they brag about their accomplishments, but to what end? I used to read US News & World Reports when I was in high school, and we used it as a resource in our current events class, but that was a long time ago. Is it still in print? Does anyone go to it for news? When I go to their site's home page, I see a lot of self-sponsored content ("Best _____").

My point is not to diminish the tremendous efforts of our students, families, teachers, and everyone involved in educating our students, but rather to put things like this into proper perspective.

The danger in news like this is that we rest upon our laurels and the external validation trophies like this provides instead of working as hard as possible to achieve our own goals.

The District was quick to issue a statement about how proud they are to have won this trophy, but I'd like to see them take the information and see where there might be areas for improvement.

• Why do Ike and West fare so differently in many of these types of rankings?
• Why did Ike drop from #331 in the nation in 2020 to #350?
• Do the measures that US News (or Niche or ....) used match up with our goals for educating our students? How do we rank against our own goals, year over year? This is more important to me than whether we beat other schools using someone else's measure of success.
• Do we survey our students x years after graduation to find out how successful they feel their experience was in our schools to prepare them for what they've faced afterward?

I'd like to see more parity between our schools. If we're going to use this ranking as our measuring stick of success, what are we going to do to make Ike and West more equal to each other?

If we're going to pat ourselves on the back, then we also have to be willing to look ourselves in the mirror.

Last Updated: May 2, 2022

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