High School on TV

Like many things, high school is always a little cooler on TV or in the movies.

So naturally, the Culture and Lifestyle editors at Newsweek couldn't let the hard news side of the office have all the fun with their "Top High Schools "report. Check out their analysis of the fictional high schools from TV and the movies against those on the magazine's real life list.

From Grease's Rydell High School (the real-life Venice High in California) to Ferris Bueller's Glenbrook North High in suburban Chicago and Napoleon Dynamite's awesome Preston High in Idaho, find out how the Hollywood high school alma maters fared here.

America's Top High Schools

Newsweek is out with its annual ranking of the country's "top" (their adjective) high schools.

The ranking is based on a ratio created by Washington Post education columnist Jay Matthews. According to the magazine, the secret recipe is:

the number of Advanced Placement, Intl. Baccalaureate and/or Cambridge tests taken by all students at a school in 2007 divided by the number of graduating seniors. All of the schools on the list have an index of at least 1.000; they are in the top 5 percent of public schools measured this way.

All told, 23 schools in Washington made the complete list of 1,300 top schools. But four Washington state schools made the top 100; all four were in Bellevue. They include the International School (number 10), Newport High (31st) and Interlake (45th) and Bellevue High (62nd).

You can view the list of all 23 Washington schools here.

Who Wants to be a Principal?

Fortunately, many educators still do. But a rash of news coverage questions why anyone would.

This is the time of year many administrators start thinking about the coming school year and must indicate their desire to stay in their current positions, change buildings, change grade levels, move into the central office or retire altogether. (In some cases, the district rearranges the players...)

Yesterday, AWSP was interviewed by The Olympian and KOMO Radio about the turnover in the principalship, particularly at the high school level. Although we don't keep stats on the changes, we do track the position changes for our own employment postings. Extremely long hours, coupled with high pressure and complex demands make that leadership position particularly demanding and subject to greater scrutiny -- and turnover. Then Newsweek hit the newsstands today with its annual "America's Best High Schools" feature.

In addition to stories about some great high schools around the country, the magazine takes a moment to examine the school leaders at work in these schools and acknowledges some of these same challenges. Be sure to check out "The Principal Principle" and the rest of the special issue. Then tell us what you think!

Is there more pressure on high school administrators? Or is the job of the principal generally just getting tougher?

Incidentally, 19 high schools from our state made the magazine's list of the top 5 percent (1,253) in the country.