Our Classroom Q&A blogger Larry Ferlazzo’s school, Luther Burbank High in Sacramento, Calif., has been named on Washington Post columnist Jay Mathew’s list of America’s Most Challenging High Schools, which ranks schools based on the number of students included in advanced or college-level courses. We’d say congratulations, but Larry seems to have mixed feelings about the honor—while his principal apparently reacted to the news by calling such school rankings “meaningless” and “quite possible destructive. ...” For Larry, the recognition is particularly bittersweet—and ironic—since, he says, the school is slated to lose 21 teachers to layoffs this year.
A version of this news article first appeared in the Teaching Now blog.