US News' best Iowa high schools

[Tornado man]

Pretty interesting list:

1. CR Kennedy
2. Mid-Prairie of Wellman
3. Iowa City West
4. Decorah
5. CR Washington
6. Ames
7. Linn-Mar
8. WDM Valley
9. West Liberty
10. Waukee

http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/iowa/rankings?int=c0b4c1

 

[cyclonespiker33]

Number 1! NUMBER 1! NUMBER 1!

 

[Rabbuk]

Kennedy is a school of douchers though

 

[mramseyISU]

I wouldn't have guessed that all those Cedar Rapids schools are so high up on the list.

 

[Gunnerclone]

Maybe the yuppie multi-spawners will stop infiltrating my neighborhood in DSM and move to CR.

 

[cyclonespiker33]

Kennedy is a school of douchers though

Hey you don't say that!

 

[CyArob]

Kennedy is a school of douchers though

I thought that was Washington...

 

[cyclonespiker33]

I thought that was Washington...

I would say Linn Mar

 

[Al_4_State]

I have a lot of buddies who went to Mid-Prairie.

That surprises me.

 

[3TrueFans]

We're #6! We're #6! Also you suck, Gilbert.

 

[IAStubborn]

Pretty interesting list:

1. CR Kennedy
2. Mid-Prairie of Wellman
3. Iowa City West
4. Decorah
5. CR Washington
6. Ames
7. Linn-Mar
8. WDM Valley
9. West Liberty
10. Waukee

http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/iowa/rankings?int=c0b4c1

Just all the schools that do heavy AP work. A lot of schools do better in the other factors but don't do AP formally and thus aren't ranked.

 

[Hoiball92]

We're #6! We're #6! Also you suck, Gilbert.

Ames was #3 last year... But yeah suck it Gilbert.

 

[ThurgoodMarshal]

Wow Ankeny really sucks now.

 

[RubyClone]

Are those public schools only?

 

[BKLYNCyclone]

#1 in iowa is like #689 in the US... I would like to see the public schools versus the private schools breakdown.

 

[im4cyclones]

This is flawed in that a major criteria is what they determine to be college readiness - % who take vs pass AP classes/exams. AP should be one measure to ***** college readiness, not the only. Many colleges only give elective credits for an AP class. Some don't give any credit for it anymore.

A better measure of college readiness would be the number of college credits earned by graduates. Ames or Gilbert get no credit for HS students taking Psych 101 on campus, for instance. What better way can you measure college readiness than performance in actual college classes? Better to take AP Calc in HS and get elective credit or the actual college class for real college credit?

 

[MNCyGuy]

Maybe the yuppie multi-spawners will stop infiltrating my neighborhood in DSM and move to CR.

Hey, some of us resemble that remark!

 

[ISUboi12]

#1 in iowa is like #689 in the US... I would like to see the public schools versus the private schools breakdown.

USNews can't even competently rate colleges without the use of a roulette wheel. I really wouldn't give a lot of credence to their ability to rank every high school in the United States. Iowa schools collectively do just about as good of job as any other school system nationally and I wouldn't rate any one of these large schools as a better overall educational experience than most small schools in the state. More opportunity for gifted students - sure. But I doubt the average student from any of the schools on that list fare overall better than the average student out of just about any 1A or 2A school.

Hell, I graduated in the bottom 10% of my small high school class (<50 people) and still have a doctorate degree from a program that was ranked #1 nationally by USNews.

 

[wxman1]

Kennedy is a school of douchers though

Preach it bro.

#7 is where it is at.

 

[CyFan61]

I thought that was Washington...

I would say Linn Mar

I remember the old stereotypes well...

Jefferson = trashy
Kennedy = superiority complex, overrated
Linn-Mar = also superiority complex, live in their own bubble
Marion = no one cared (sorry)
Prairie = hicks
Washington = snotty, old money, CRCC families
Xavier = overly religious khaki-wearers

The "doucher" title was probably most frequently applied to Linn-Mar but every school got it at various times I'm sure.

I met people from all of these schools at ISU and, for the most part, people from Cedar Rapids/Marion are good people and the labels really aren't that true.