LATEST HIGH SCHOOL RANKINGS SHOW SOME IMPROVEMENT, BUT STILL DOWN

The latest U.S. News & World Report high school rankings came out Tuesday. 

The news is somewhat positive.
Three of Rockwood's four high schools moved up a bit in both their state and national rankings. 

Marquette, though, went down in both state and national rankings.

All 4 are still down compared to 2019.

HOW 2022 RANKINGS COMPARE TO PREVIOUS YEARS

2022 RANKINGS

These rankings are generally 2 years behind, so, this is a reflection of how Rockwood high schools compared to schools in other districts during 2020, before Covid shut down our schools. 

Meaning, this does not include a "Covid effect." They did, however make adjustments with the way they used the data this year. A detailed explanation is below.

HOW MANY SCHOOLS

The rankings include 465 high schools in Missouri and, 17,843 across the country. 

Here's how Rockwood compares to nearby districts in the top 20.

Note: Metro, Collegiate, and McKinley Classical are magnet schools in St. Louis, each with 58% minority student population.

With MAP scores down across the district, many parents are concerned about what appears to be a lack of emphasis on academics. The emphasis over the last couple of years has been "diversity" and "culture" in subject matter and class assignments, in the form of anti-police themes, gender, and, identity topics. 

Additionally, it is overreach into areas parents feel should be handled at home; not by the schools.

For examples of what parents call agenda and ideology replacing academics, click "agenda vs academics."

U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT EXPLANATION

U.S. News & World Report gave this explanation for what data they used:

"With most states closing schools for in-person instruction beginning in March 2020 – just before states typically conduct assessments – the U.S. Department of Education granted waivers allowing all states to forego state testing for the 2019-20 school year.

Without such data available, U.S. News relied on historic assessment data from the three prior ranking years while also incorporating for the first time state science assessment data from the 2018-19 school year to capture a broader measure of student learning. 

Specifically, an average of the following years and academic subjects were used: 2016-2017 math and reading assessment data; 2017-18 math and reading assessment data; and 2018-19 math, reading and science assessment data. Arizona, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Michigan and Tennessee had only math and reading data factored all three years. All states except for those six had science tests added for 2018-2019."

ROCKWOOD RANKINGS FOR PREVIOUS YEARS