Newsweek's high school rankings (yet again)

Newsweek and Jay Mathews are at it again. Yet again they've published a list of "the 1,300 top U.S. schools". And yet again they've used Mathews's simplistic and stupid Challenge Index to come up with their rankings.

Since they haven't added anything, I don't have to either. Everything I've written in the past on this remains relevant. See these two posts from two years ago and this one from last year.

Of course, I can't resist adding a bit more. Towards the end of his piece Mathews admits, as he did last year, that his work is journalism, not scholarship, likening his Challenge Index to slugging percentage, i.e. just one factor to be considered. The difference, of course, is that slugging percentage actually correlates really well with scoring runs in baseball. Mathews doesn't tell us anything about what the Challenge Index correlates to, nor does he justify why his admittedly personal criterion should be the sole basis for "America's Top Schools."

Will the madness never end?