Bang For The Buck -- And Tricks Districts Use To Look Good
Forget the Challenge Index and all that nonsense about Advanced Placement Courses. So 90's. Now Forbes is out with its ranking of districts, based on their notions of who's got the most bang for the buck(Best And Worst School Districts For The Buck). According to Forbes, Marin County, California comes out number one. The others in the top five are Collin, Texas; Hamilton, Ind.; Norfolk, Mass.; and Montgomery, Md. Losers include Alexandria, VA. Others on the bottom of the list include Glynn, Ga.; Washington, D.C.; Ulster, N.Y.; and Beaufort, S.C. For all its obvious flaws, the Forbes story notes how difficult it is to obtain comparable data, and how many gimmicks and tricks districts use to make their numbers look better.
