Methodology: MA’s Top High Schools 2014
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
GoLocal uses data from the Massachusetts Department of Secondary and Elementary Education's public databases; the analysis reflects the most current data on this site as of June, 2014.
Process and Weighting Formulas
What followed was precise statistical analysis, guided by a methodology used in similar rankings created elsewhere in New England. After collecting the relevant data, we calculated the average values in each of the categories and the degree to which each school either exceeded or failed to reach those averages.
Those deviations from the average were standardized so that different categories could be compared meaningfully, and then we used a weighting formula to give certain categories more importance than others. We wanted, for example, a school’s student-teacher ratio to matter more in our ranking than its Math SAT scores – though test scores all together account for 60% of the weighting.
Student/Teacher Ratio 15%
Per Pupil Spending 15%
MCAS-English Language Arts 10%
MCAS-Mathematics 10%
MCAS-Science and Technology/Engineering 10%
SAT-Verbal 10%
SAT-Math 10%
SAT-Writing 10%
Graduation Rate 10%
Each school’s weighted numbers were added into a single evaluative number, which, when ordered from highest to lowest, yields the ranking. A second ranking of Central Massachusetts' Top High Schools was derived from the overall ranking statewide.
To see profiles of the Top High Schools in Massachusetts, go here.
To see the Top High Schools in Central Massachusetts, go here.
Related Articles
- Top High Schools: Top Stories in Central Mass in 2012
- Coming Tuesday: The Top High Schools in Massachusetts 2013
- Methodology: The Top High Schools in Massachusetts 2013
- In Case You Missed It: Top High Schools in Massachusetts 2013
- MA’s Top High Schools 2012: The Complete List of 1 to 392
- MA’s Top High Schools 2012: The Breakdown of 1 to 392 Individual Scores
- RI Favorites - Top High Schools
- Central MA’s Top High Schools 2012: How We Got the Rankings
- The Top High Schools in Massachusetts 2012: An Overview of the Study
- MA’s Top High Schools 2012: The Link Between Schools and Home Values
- The Link Between Home Values + Schools—MA’s Top High Schools 2013
- The Top High Schools in Massachusetts 2013
- Coming Tuesday: The Top High Schools in Central MA 2014
- The Top High Schools in Massachusetts 2014
- Reaction to Top High Schools in Central Massachusetts 2013
- Methodology: MA’s Top High Schools 2014
- See Central MA’s Top High Schools for 2014
- The Top High Schools in Central MA 2014
- See MA’s Top High Schools for 2014
- CHART: Massachusetts’ Top High Schools 2014 From #1 to #332
- CHART: Massachusetts’ Top High Schools 2013 From #1 to #344
- The Top High Schools in Central Massachusetts 2013
Follow us on Pinterest Google + Facebook Twitter See It Read It