You Asked Patch Answers: Questions About SHS's Top 50 Ranking

A Sept. 3, story we did about Boston Magazine ranking 49th among 222 high schools in Boston and Boston's suburbs generated two questions from readers.

One reader wanted to know if student transportation was included in the per pupil spending for school districts?

Another reader asked if the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment Program and SAT scores include scores for all kids on Individualized Education Programs or only those who took the standard MCAS — without factoring the MCAS portfolio scores? 

We forwarded the questions to Boston Magazine's Executive Editor Patrick Doyle, who wrote the Top 50 story.

Patrick responded immediately with the answers.

1. He said that student transportation costs were not included in the per pupil spending for school districts.

The magazine used the overall per pupil spending provided by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, he said.

2. The executive editor said that all IEPs student data is included in the overall MCAS scores.

However, from Swampscott's participation breakdown, it doesn't seem like any students took the alternate assessment:

http://profiles.doe.mass.edu/mcas/participation.aspx?linkid=26&orgcode=02910505&fycode=2011&orgtypecode=6&

As for SATs, the Department of Education doesn't oversee the administration of the test—the College Board does, he said.

Unfortunately, there are no good breakdowns for determining which students took the test, he said.  The magazine's researchers rely on the data that the school provides to the state.

Here are Swampscott's SAT results:

http://profiles.doe.mass.edu/sat/sat_perf_dist.aspx?orgcode=02910505&orgtypecode=6&

The September issue of Boston Magazine ranked the top 50 high schools in Boston and Boston's suburbs.

The ranking formula incorporated 13 different data points. It gave most weight to academics including performance on the MCAS, the SATs, and AP exams.

The ranking also factored in graduation rates, the percentage of students who go to college, student-teacher ratio and per-pupil spending and extracurricular activities, according to the magazine.  

Swampscott High, with its enrollment of 741 students, its student/teacher ratio of 12.8:1, its per pupil spending of $12,448, had 96.8 percent of its students graduate and 96 percent of its students attend college.