Why Wasn't Andover On List Of Top High Schools?

ANDOVER, MA -- The implicit deal when a town charges high taxes is that it will provide good schools, which will mean smarter kids and better property values. So when Andover didn't show up on the U.S. News rankings of the country's top high schools released earlier this week, the social media outrage was loud and immediate. Last year, Andover was the 17th highest-rated Massachusetts school on the list, and raw data suggests that Andover should have been ranked higher than many of the 91 Massachusetts schools that made this year's list.

But the methodology used by U.S. News appears to have penalized Andover for poorer performance by black, Hispanic and economically disadvantaged students. At the same time, while Andover students scored better than the state average on math and reading assessment tests, the school did not rank in the top 10% of Massachusetts schools in test scores evaluated by U.S. News.

In a statement sent to Patch Saturday, Andover Superintendent Sheldon Berman said the exclusion was a result of the methodology used to compile the rankings. U.S. News did not respond to a request for further clarification on its methodology.

"U.S. News calculates an index based on student success on the state standardized test (the MCAS, for Massachusetts high schools). The top 10% of districts are automatically moved forward to step 2. We were not in this group," Berman said. "They then analyze according to this index and the percent of economically disadvantaged students. Andover performed above expectations according to this analysis, but not far enough above to cross the threshold to move on to step 2. Had we moved forward, our remaining scores in the subsequent three steps would have easily promoted us to the final ranking step."

U.S. News awarded 91 schools medals in the rankings, and a closer look at the data shows that the biggest difference between Andover and the medal recipients is the 15.4 percentage-point gap between non-underserved students who scored proficient (97.6%) and underserved students who scored proficient on state math and reading tests (82.2%). By comparison, at ninth-ranked Arlington High School, the gap was 8.6 percentage points. At top-ranked Boston Latin, 100% of the student body tested proficient, regardless of their race or family income.

Meanwhile, U.S. News said Andover students scored 3.7% better than expected on state tests once it had factored in underserved students. But most of the ranked schools had percentage scores in the double digits in this category.

Another area where Andover was lower than many of the top ranked schools was a score U.S. News called "college readiness," based on Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate test data as the benchmark for success. Andover's 54.2 score was not a factor in why the school was not ranked, and it was higher than many of the schools that received medals from U.S. News. At the same time, however, it paled in comparison to top-ranked schools like Boston Latin (94.3) and the Advanced Math and Science Academy Charter School in Marlborough (83.9).

"It is important to remember that Andover High School students perform very well and we are proud of their success and of their teachers," Berman said. "We remain committed to making necessary changes, like the new high school schedule, that will improve student achievement."

See the U.S. News data for Andover High School.

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Patch file photo.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).