Don't sell urban high schools short

Urban schools carry lots of baggage -- suitcases full of stereotypes and perceptions about race, class and culture. In the name of accountability, government has devised all sorts of measuring tools, and many urban schools don't measure up well.

Holmes High School in Covington comes to mind. For example, using the respected Standard & Poor's website on school performance, you will see a school with lots of issues made most obvious by low test scores in math and reading. The school is not making adequate progress under the guidelines of the No Child Left Behind law either.

But such stats don't tell the whole story. I hope Kentucky Enquirer readers noticed a full-page ad Friday, which was placed by a Covington law firm, that saluted Holmes for making Newsweek magazine's list as one of the top high schools in the country. Holmes even scored better than the other two local schools on the list -- Ryle in Boone County and Highlands in Fort Thomas. Talk about debunking stereotypes.

Newsweek's rankings are based on an index that adds all the students taking advanced placement and similar tests; then divides this by the number of graduating seniors. That seemed like a thin premise to me until I read the article by Jay Mathews that explained how and why he did this. Here's an excerpt:

"Test scores, the usual way of rating schools, are in nearly every case a measure of parental wealth and education, not good teaching. Every study shows that if your parents fill their house with books, include you in conversations and take you to plays and museums, you tend to score well on standardized tests even if your school is not the best. So, with the help of some astute AP teachers, I developed a scale called the Challenge Index, which used each school's rate of participation in college-level tests like AP to indicate which schools were the most demanding and supportive of all students.

"Educators in schools with large numbers of low-income students that ... have succeeded in coaxing students into demanding courses say the list has given them recognition they never thought they would get."

So, let's give Holmes a thumbs up today. In that spirit, click to our recent story about Holmes' top four students from the Class of 2007. Kayla Kinker, Kati Fossett, Michelle Glass and Christina Kuchle (from left) are pictured here.