US News' best Iowa high schools

CyFan61

Well-Known Member
Oct 25, 2010
14,540
273
83
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.

Every time high school rankings come up, we have these kind of discussions.

Small school graduates think the small school experience is unbeatable.
Mid-sized school graduates think they get the best of both worlds.
Big school graduates think the opportunities that were available make theirs the best.

I imagine that certain types of students would fare better at a larger school and others at smaller schools.
 

enisthemenace

Well-Known Member
Dec 5, 2009
13,958
10,154
113
Runnells, IA
That's bull ****. No metro schools in the top 10?

(Kind of :jimlad: Roosevelt is a damn good school. EDIT: Not being a homer either. I went to a different metro school).
 
Last edited:

Gunnerclone

Well-Known Member
Jul 16, 2010
75,615
79,896
113
DSM
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?

Well I can tell you which one is easier.
 

Gonzo

Well-Known Member
Mar 10, 2009
26,744
31,094
113
Behind you
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.

Mostly on the mark but I'd tweak Linn-Mar and Xavier. LM is situated to take in all kinds of country folk, and has a pretty sizable drug culture. There is definitely a snooty element but I don't think it's the prevailing identity. Xavier on the other hand is all about snooty, privileged, private school culture who think they're better than the rest. I don't think Xavier is overly religious, they're the only Catholic game in town, but they're more about how glitzy do my D&G shades look behind the wheel of my oversized Infiniti QX80.
 

cowmaster1

Active Member
Dec 16, 2012
409
34
28
St. Paul
I wonder why they don't account for private schools, because I'm pretty sure private schools still have to report all those numbers so I doubt it'd be that hard to add them to the list.

Then again, we don't need another reason for everyone to hate Dowling Catholic :smile:
 

TXCyclones

Well-Known Member
SuperFanatic
SuperFanatic T2
Sep 13, 2011
11,404
12,622
113
TX
Quite a few schools missing on that Iowa list. Is that 5A and 4A only? No Boone, no Ballard, and some others missing too.
 

carvers4math

Well-Known Member
Mar 15, 2012
21,352
17,736
113
I have nieces and nephews that attended the top ranked school in another state from US News. They were above average students and the school has been ranked number one for several years in a row; it also rather poorly prepared them for college. Mountains of homework daily and spoon-fed study guides really don't prepare students for a college system that is so much less structured.