Column
By Mike Buffington
Evaluating local high schools depends on what your priorities are
What is the best high school in the Jefferson area? That explosive question is one that citizens have debated for decades.
A couple of weeks ago, a prospective developer stepped into that touchy debate when he said he wanted some residential property annexed into the City of Jefferson because the city school system was better than the county school system.
Ouch!
Real estate agents have been using a similar marketing line for the last decade. In fact, school quality issues are a big factor all across the nation in why and where families choose to locate.
In Jackson County, one of the forces driving the housing boom of 2002-2006 were people moving out of Gwinnett County to get away from impersonal “mega” high schools. Real estate agents often touted the quality of local schools in their sales pitches.
But is one high school in Jackson County really better than another? How do you measure the quality of a high school? Is it even possible to rank high schools?
Putting all the marketing hype aside, it’s difficult to compare and rank schools in a community. What makes one high school better than another? Is it high standardized test scores? Is it the breadth of course offerings? Is it athletics? Is it other extracurricular programs?
To a large extent, school quality is in the eye of the beholder. What’s important to one family about a school may not be important to their neighbors. What one student may be interested in may hold no value for the student sitting at the next desk. Everyone evaluates schools through the lenses of their own biases.
In addition, school strengths change and evolve year to year. The quality of teachers changes over time, sometimes for the better, sometimes not. And perhaps more importantly, the quality of students varies from year to year. Some class groups are simply brighter than others, a fact that is reflected in the up-and-down variations seen in standardized test results from year to year.
But even with all that data, there are some things about evaluating a school that are more subjective than objective. How do you measure intangible aspects of a school, such as a school’s “sense of community?” Parents often say they like schools that are community-based, but how do you measure such a vaporous concept?
Despite those challenges, there is value in trying to get an objective evaluation of local high schools. Holding schools “accountable” has become the political mantra of the new millennium and as a result, students are bombarded with standardized tests and parents are flooded with test scores.
In an effort to objectively compare the two high schools in the Jefferson area, Jefferson High School and Jackson County Comprehensive High School, we sifted through three years of data available for the two high schools to see if there were any clear trends that would make one high school “better” than the other. In addition, we looked at what both schools had to offer outside the academic numbers.
The result is that both schools have strengths and weaknesses. Claiming that one is better than the other is, in the end, impossible.
Here’s a rundown on the details shown in the chart:
ATHLETICS: Advantage Jefferson High School
Jefferson has a long tradition of athletic successes in a variety of sports. Over the last three years, JHS has been ranked by the Georgia Athletic Directors Association in the top five for overall athletic achievement in the state’s Class A division. The school’s successful athletic programs have been in both girls’ and boys’ sports. Jackson County Comprehensive High School has had some athletic successes, but over the last three years has ranked no higher than 57th in the 4A division. It remains to be seen if JHS can maintain its winning programs next year when it moves up to the Class 2A division.
FINE ARTS PROGRAMS: Advantage Jackson County Comprehensive High School
Over the last two decades, JCCHS has built a highly-respected fine arts program with outstanding choral, drama and band programs. Although there is no independent ranking of schools in this area, the breadth, depth and tradition of JCCHS’ programs give it a clear advantage.
VOCATIONAL PROGRAMS: Advantage Jackson County Comprehensive High School
The breadth of JCCHS’ vocational classes is stunning. Fourteen agriculture and bioscience classes, 10 business education classes, nine family and consumer science classes, eight healthcare science classes and a half-dozen other specialized vocational offerings. In 2007, around 45 percent of JCCHS grads got a vocational diploma and another 40 percent got both a vocational and college prep seal, meaning 85 percent of graduates that year received some kind of vocational training.
EOCT RESULTS: Advantage Jefferson High School
Over the last three years of data, JHS had a slightly lower failure rate in three key “end of course tests” required by the state. JCCHS was a little better in Physical Science, but JHS performed better in 9th grade literature and Algrbera I.
WRITING TEST: Advantage Jefferson High School
In the 11th grade state writing test, JHS had an average failure rate of 4.3 percent over the last three years of data while JCCHS was at 10.3 percent.
GHSGT Results: Advantage Jefferson High School
In the four areas of the Georgia High School Graduation Test, JHS had a slightly lower average failure rate in three years of data. JCCHS did better in two of the years in the science section, but it hasn’t improved that area much over the time while JHS saw a dramatic improvement in the most recent year. In Social Studies, the two high schools were about equal in results, but strong results in the most recent year for language arts and math pulled JHS ahead.
ACT COMPOSITE: Advantage Jackson County Comprehensive High School
Used by many colleges now, the ACT test is a counterpart to the SAT. Although JHS had the best results in 2007, JCCHS had the most consistent and overall best scores over the three-year period on the ACT.
SAT COMPOSITE: Advantage Jefferson High School
The traditional college entrance test, the SAT has become an icon in the standardized testing world and is both lauded and derided. Over the three-year period studied, JHS was the clear winner with a higher average on the two core parts of math and verbal.
AP CLASSES/TESTING: Advantage Jackson County Comprehensive High School
Advanced Placement courses have become the latest trend in high schools for students attempting to get into top colleges. JCCHS offers nearly double the number of AP classes as JHS and despite having four times as many students participating as JHS, had the same percentage scoring 3+ on the exams.
HOPE ELIGIBLE: Advantage Jackson County Comprehensive High School
There wasn’t a lot of difference here, but JCCHS had 36.6 percent of its 2007 graduates eligible for HOPE while JHS was at 33.3 percent.
COLLEGE ENTRIES: Advantage Jefferson High School
On a percentage basis, more JHS students began a Georgia college in 2005 and 2006 than JCCHS students. In 2005, JHS had 36.5 percent of its grads attending a Georgia college compared to JCCHS’ 29.9 percent. In 2006, it was 46.3 percent vs. 35.9 percent.
READY FOR COLLEGE: Advantage Jackson County Comprehensive High School
Although it had a lower percentage of grads going to college, JCCHS students appeared to have been better prepared in 2005 and 2006. In 2005, 25.6 percent of JCCHS grads needed college “learning support” help compared to JHS’ 28.6 percent. In 2006, only 15.2 percent of JCCHS grads needed LS compared to JHS’ 29.5 percent. These were for Georgia colleges and do not consider out of state schools.
GRAD RATE: Advantage Jefferson High School
According to three years of state data, JHS had a higher percentage graduation rate than JCCHS. While JCCHS averaged around 69 percent grad rate, JHS averaged around 84 percent. JHS also had a lower dropout rate.
SCHOOL SIZE: Equal
Does size matter? Although JCCHS is quite a bit larger than JHS, is that an advantage or disadvantage? Because of its size, JCCHS can offer a wider course selection, such as more foreign languages, more vocational and other special classes. However, some students and parents prefer smaller schools. Despite the more narrow course offerings, some parents believe smaller schools have a more cohesive “feel.” In the end, it’s simply personal preference that is impossible to measure.
UNIQUE PROGRAMS: Equal
Both JHS and JCCHS offer some unique special programs for students. JHS has its Scotland Exchange Program and WWII trips to Europe while JCCHS has its electric vehicle program and a large, tradition rich ROTC program. Both schools offer special opportunities to students and it’s impossible to say that one is better than the other.
Mike Buffington is the editor of The Jackson Herald. Contact him at mike@mainstreetnews.com.
