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Now that the trustees’ election is completed, out comes the evaluations of the U S News & World Reports’ ranking of various school systems. LPOSD was quick to claim credit for being a 26 out of 100 and a 48-percent math proficiency. Three new reviews reveal further the real weakness here. Support of the existing way of doing things, as stated by two newly elected men, merely covers up the falling behind that actually is occurring.

Visit www.aei.org/publication/why-the-u-s-news-best-high-school-rankings-are-flawed, by Nat Malkus (May 1, 2017), provides a good understanding of the weaknesses of the report. Though directly applicable to Texas, the same weaknesses apply to Idaho. Essentially, the report gives more credit to school systems with lower “poverty” or “disadvantaged” student percentages. This biases the scores against systems in larger districts (Coeur d’Alene, Moscow, Boise). Further, AP courses are all that truly are measured.

A more technical view is provided at www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet by Valerie Strauss (8-10-2015). Though dated, the Report still seems to “…actually reward elite enrollment…”, by tilting toward AP scores. The bottom line — the report still is not a complete or accurate picture of the student body.

Additionally, www.wtop.com/montgomery-county by Jack Moore (May 14, 2017) exposes that at least in one case the report used old data from 2014-2015, and that “… schools with low numbers of disadvantaged students … are expected to score better.

Idaho could help all students by changing measurements to something similar to the “Every Student Succeeds Act” mentioned in the first review.

JEREMY CONLIN

Cocolalla