Old School Ties

Newsweek magazine has released its annual ranking of the Best High Schools in the United States, basing those rankings on the number of students taking Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, and/or Cambridge tests taken by all students at a school in 2007 divided by the number of graduating seniors. Of more than 28,000 high schools in the nation, they ranked the top 1,358 -- or the top 5%.

Seven of those schools were in Arkansas, and three were in Northwest Arkansas. Bentonville was ranked 486, Fayetteville came in at 536, and Rogers was listed at 1,243. Last year, Bentonville High ranked 566th on the list of the best high schools. Fayetteville High ranked 628th, and Rogers came in at 892.

Other Arkansas schools ranked this year were the Arkansas High School for Math and Science at Hot Springs which placed 1,355, Fort Smith Southside qualified at 625, and Mills University Studies at Little Rock ranked 111.

The highest ranked high school in Arkansas and 36th best in the nation was Little Rock Central High School. This must confound the Cowbirds and other local advocates who vigorously claim that Fayetteville must sell off the current 40-acre campus because it is too small and the 50-year old building is too old for our children to receive the quality of education they deserve. Central High was opened in 1927; it is 81 years old and has a campus of only 21 acres. Try again.