p>GreatSchools.org ranks schools across the nation on a number of factors on a scale of 1(worst) to 10 (best).
Lawrence High 5; FSHS 6; Blue Valley W 9; BV N 10; BV 9; BVNW 7; SM East 10; SMN 5; SMNW 8; SMS 8; SMW 5; Olathe NW 7; Olathe E 8; Olathe N 5; Olathe S 6.

So we are at the bottom of the group tied with SMN, SMW and Olathe N.

Here is a news flash for the school board: Capital outlay funds can be spent on improved labs, better votech facilities, equipment for labs and advanced courses, and computers. It doesn't have to be spent on outdoor facilities. It can be spent on things that help educate our children on science, math, reading, and languages.

just because i think this quote is a funny as all get-out:

“The ratio itself is kind of fun, and it would be great to get,” he (Free State Principal Ed West ) said.

fucing hillaireeoous.

The problems could be within the BOE and upper level administration decisions. Lawrence High School at one point in history was well known for academics.

Now the board spends too much effort closing schools. And too many of them want to build new large schools instead of making what we have better. They have been led to believe that larger schools are more efficient.... It's not the efficiency necessarily or the size of the school it's the quality of education. USD 497 does not NEED large schools to obtain academic achievement.

Then things took a new direction aka spending big bucks on sports to be sure USD 497 wins championships. They were doing it without reckless spending.

People/ parents and administration from JOCO are very well represented in Topeka,Kansas when doing battle for public education money. From my observation USD 497 is very quiet in comparison.

Other school districts also realize USD 497 is missing in action.

USD 497 does have strong representation among elected officials however it's the low numbers of parent and administrative bodies.

My suggestion is to get behind SOS( Save Our Neighborhood Schools) significantly if a change is expected. Put these people on the school board. Attend their meetings. Send them money.

"Here is a news flash for the school board: Capital outlay funds can be spent on improved labs, better votech facilities, equipment for labs and advanced courses, and computers. It doesn't have to be spent on outdoor facilities. It can be spent on things that help educate our children on science, math, reading, and languages. " I agree

I teach in one of the Johnson County high schools. Don't think that having a high number of students taking the tests is a good thing. It says students TAKING the test, not students PASSING the tests. I have witnessed first-hand that as schools strive to meet this criteria, honors classes have been "dumbed down." Students who don't belong in honors classes are encouraged to take them because they boost this score. The honors teachers end up lowering their curriculum so these students keep up because if they can't, they will drop the class which means one less student takes the test. Also, teachers who provide a rigorous curriculum, actually prepare the students to do well on the test (and for that matter, succeed in college) are pushed out of those classes in favor of the more popular (easy) teachers. Having "tough" teachers teach the class leads students to drop the class, which means fewer students taking the test.

Don't think this score is any indication of how "good" a school is. In my experience, it can actually mean the opposite.

Merrill- the board does not spend too much time talking about closing schools, they spend too much time listening and not enough time creating a plan. If the people who are a part of the SONS group really do care about the education of all of Lawrence, why don't they leave their nice jobs at KU and start teaching at USD497??? Oh yeah because they wouldn't be tenured.

As for me, why don't I well because i would tell the district administration that they need to "break" the teachers union. It has grown too powerful and has helped retain crappy teachers. They are in the process of discussing their next contract. Teachers get no raise and the district will kick in $500K to help cover medical costs. The rest of the district takes a pay cut. Sounds fair?? No??? Do you think the teachers will suggest a pay cut like the rest of the district?? Teachers may be underpaid. but there are many people in the distrtict who are also underpaid based on the expanded roles and responsibilities.

I asked a teacher once who was complainin about being underpaid if in all of her classes was she told she was going to make $75K teaching? Did she do any research to see how much teachers make here? Did the USD497 offer her a job for one amount nd then start paying her a lower amount.

All of her answers were no and she said "but in CA, NY, & JO CO teachers get paid more."

I suggested she or try to work in JO CO but she refused because she went to KU and liked living in Lawrence. I gave up, i have learned that you can't debate with stupid people.

Oh no! LHS/FSHS are not popular. The shame of it all.

How about challenging students.

Like pushing/cajoling/influencing them to take algebra/physics/chemistry/calculus or analog&digital circuits/programming/mechanical drawing or speech/forensics/creative writing, votech is for some but HS is for a foundation that lasts a lifetime but no,

it's the family's fault

There are small schools out in the flatlands of KS that still offer Latin & Hebrew.

it's the family's fault

LHS is my alma mater and I taught at both LHS and FSHS - so I support both schools, academically and athletically.

This statistic, however, is a bogus one. As weirdalfan27 says, this is about the number of students taking the test, not passing it. It would be easy for both LHS and FSHS - simply require all seniors to take the ACT test. That number, combined with the students who already take AP Tests would put both schools onto the list.

The problems with doing that are these: (1) this statistic assumes that all students are headed for college - as we all hopefully know, many students are better served by a career or technical school, (2) there is a cost to these tests, and unless the school district is willing to pay for all those students who can't afford to take them, the test would be a burden on the families, (3) it would seem that it would be possible for all seniors at a school to take the ACT, code their names on the answer sheet, make patterns with the answers, and turn the sheet in - does that really say anything about the quality of the education?

I am all for student improvement, I am all for academics over athletics (although both are important), and I am all for measuring the quality of our schools - I am not for meaningless statistics which don't truly measure whether or not students are learning and improving.

Another factor mentioned was socio-economic status factors in the schools that did well on the ratings. From my understanding, it costs $86 to take the test, which for some, might be cost prohibitive.

Shaun Hittle LJW Reporter

We don't all agree on the merits of the Newsweek rating. How about just looking at graduation rates? And how about just looking at a school with the same socio-economic mix as Lawrence so we don't have to compare ourselves with rich BV and SM?

Olathe North has the same socio-economic make-up as Lawrence High. KS DOE even lists Lawrence High and Olathe North as comparable schools on this dimension.

In 2008 (the latest year reported), Olathe North had 91.5% of students finish HS. LHS had 80.2% finish high school. At LHS, 3 subgroups of race/ethnicity had less than 60% finish high school. While no subgroup at Olathe N was less than 60%.

For AfricanAmerican students, LHS had 68.4% complete high school. At Olathe North, 93.9% of the the African-American students graduated.

Lawrence used to be the premier school district in the state. No matter which measure we use (NEwsweek, website ratings, or graduation rate data), Lawrence could do better. We are losing our best teachers to BV, Olathe, Mill Valley, SM and even Topeka. Let's turn this around Lawrence!

If this is the criteria to get on the list, I think to call it a prestigious list is a bit presumptuous.

I think there is a lot of room for improvement in the US educational system, but until that day comes, we need to encourage kids to read and motivate them by our example and our love for them.

Inspire your kids to aim high and set realistic goals. We have up to 50% drop out rates in this country and the blame is squarely on the parents.

One last complaint. Stop putting kids in a box and putting a label on them. Each person is an individual, not a number. Explore their gifts and they will be inspired to discover them on their own.

We have great schools in this town. Stop complaining.

I disagree to an extent. I think in that case teachers would be 'teaching the test' like the do now for the State Assessments.

The solution I offer to solve the problem is eliminate tenure and the teacher's union. Also, allow the customers - parents and students - to have some input (maybe 10 percent) to the evaluations.

We constantly get bombarded by propaganda about how poor the teachers are and how they're SO underpaid and they're just angels trying to make ends meet. The truth is that the're just like any other organization - about 20 percent are top-performers, 40 percent are average to above, the other 40 is a waste.

So...you want good teachers? Eliminate tenure so the deadweight can be fired. Eliminate the union so that the low-performers get paid less and the high-performers can be rewarded. And give your customers a vote in how they're doing.

Do these things and the quality of education will go up and so will the salaries of those who deserve it.

There are kids standing in the classrooms room because there aren't enough chairs, and not enough books for all the kids... maybe some basic funds would help.

I am happy to pay taxes if it goes to education! I also happy to pay teachers more, but they need to be accountable. If a teacher's class is consistantly scoring poorly on tests... then that teacher is not teaching well.

Lawrence really needs to elect some people who have knowledge and intregrity to spend our tax dollars well, then this town will be worth the money.

Numerous commenters here have stated, in effect, that parents (not teachers or schools) are responsible if their children fail to receive an appropriate education in the k-12 system. The most common supportive argument is the notion that parents are supposed to be supplementing the "free" public education by getting their children into additonal/special/enhancement programs of some sort. As we all know, such programs come at a cost. Another idea expressed by a few commenters is the notion that wealthier families equal better educated children. Indeed, there are studies over decades that bear this out. Hence, we can make a strong argument for private schools and/or charter schools and/or families providing direct payment to public school districts in order to obtain these obviously necessary enhancements.

When even the usual proponents of the U.S. public school system begin to loudly proclaim that parents need to be providing their children with something more than that which is available for "free" in the classroom, perhaps we can finally agree that the system as it stands is inadequate, that it cannot appropriately educate all the children to the extent that is needed in our society, and that the time has come to do away with our one-size-fits-all system.

"left off the list"

The title of the article makes it sound like the schools should have been on the list and were inadvertently left off. Neither school met the criteria so they were not on the list, period. Whether the criteria is appropriate for determining which schools are "best" is a completely different issue.

It is the teacher's responsibility to form the basis of education, the base of the pyramid, so to speak.

The role of the parent is to either expand on that, and raise the pyramid higher, or to find the help need to do so.

I had to spend several hours a week helping my oldest with his history 'homework', and I use that term very facetiously, after reviewing with him what was covered in his class that day. Major topic were not covered with anything approaching the depth that it was when I went to high school, but then again, I went to high school in a different state, let alone a different school.

My son, using the notes we wrote together from his textbook, plus the supplimental work I did with him, went on to score one of the top grades for his final exam in that class. One of his friends, in the same class in the same period, didn't have that same level of support at home and based on just the school work he did, he scored lower.

Teachers are slowly starting to fill the void that truckers left when society stopped degrading them the way they did in the 70's. It's sad, but it's the truth.

Fund the blasted schools. Who cares if they can throw a baseball 90 miles and hour if they can't spell baseball in the first place?

Start it in kindergarten and just hammer it from there. I can only pray that I am offsetting the damage schools are doing to the children these days. Hells, in Omaha, they actually have a district policy that if a teacher can avoid it in any fashion, they will not give a student a 0 if they fail to turn in completed homework.