Obviously there is a cryptic new way of calculating to have school ranked in the twenties and thirties over the last 5 years now coming into the top 10. Millburn still has my vote as a great school for all three of my kids.

I wish the superintendent didn't minimize the drop in school ranking. It may be an honor to be in the top 10, but number one is a whole lot better than number eight. Hopefully our school board will commit to returning us to top of the heap. Its a big draw for newcomers and helps preserve housing values.

I have had 3 children in the MSH school system. The oldest went all the way through. The next oldest left after middle school. The youngest left after elementary. All 3 of them are doing fine, but "if I knew then what I know now..."

I honestly believe the school system has been coasting. It is still strong in the sciences. It does a pretty good job grooming the thoroughbreds and attending to the draught horses, but I'm afraid that the horses in between aren't getting the education that is advertised and that the students deserve.

Of course, every child is different, and I'm sure that many children get a wonderful education in MSH. It just worked less well for my kids over the years. My $0.02.

CD, you hit the nail on the head!

Come on now parents! Quit your nit-pickin', stand and let's all sing the MHS Alma Mater just before diner tonight and EVERY night!
ALMA MATER
To thee 0 Millburn High School,
All through our youthful years,
We'll sing your praise and in our hearts
Send up triumphant cheers
For the strength, the spirit, and ideals
We found within your walls,
Will bind you closer to our hearts,
Dear ole Millburn High.
There’s a school we’ll long remember
In our fondest reverie,
Where teamwork, spirit is instilled
With strong integrity,
With a spirit that determines
The greatness of our school
We’ll do our best for MHS
Grand ole Millburn High.
--------In fact, every Bd of Ed meeting should include the Salute to The Flag, and a rousing Chorus of the MHS Alma Mater Song!

Let's see: according to their chart: https://www.box.com/s/7c300516930c32f71a8e
when comparing the top 10 schools: MB has the highest SAT average, the highest % of students (non magnet school) placing as advanced proficient in both Lang Arts AND Math plus the most AP courses offered AND the highest % of students scoring 3 or higher on their AP exams plus MB has the 2nd highest % of teachers with a Masters or PhD (81.6% vs 81.7%). In addition, this is MB's largest grade section and class sizes have risen slightly so MB is getting the best educational results with fewer teachers ie more efficiently. Sounds like MB is still the best public school in the state and NJ Monthly needed to change its rubric to come up with a different school to rank as # 1 because it needs to sell more magazines and giving MB #1 again would be boring.

Look at the whole list.
This is what you're not allowed to say:
The presence of a married mother and father, parental concern and involvement, and a stable home life are what makes a municipal public high school. Look at the locations of the top schools. Compare them, geographically, to those at the bottom.
Bill Cosby (the Cos) has spoken and written extensively on this subject, and has been effectively drummed out of his Race for even suggesting it!

JCY and CD you appear to have eschewed priorities. We run from a school when we don't get what we want? We blame the Superintendent when our child can't brag about being number 1? It's the teachers faults; it's the cafeteria food's fault. Your posts don't arouse interest, they insult teachers and administrators who work to provide a stellar education. Their work is not for a number one status, but for your children, the number one priority. The undocumented and documented time put into every student in and outside of the classroom is astounding. Yes, this should produce geniuses, but maybe we're all just "above average" this year. Our children will just have to buckle down and work harder and perhaps that may proffer a number 1 school again. Oh but wait, the number one school produced too much stress? Sigh. Such mixed messages. What's not mixed is that you're embarrassed by NUMBERS that fail to reflect the achievements of our district. You'll also have to blame a changing demographic that can no longer afford the same cultural and educational opportunities of say 10 years ago. Shame on them, right? Millburn is a changing district, but it is still an institution of strong, talented and inspirational people. What are your benchmarks for success? Yale? Harvard? So then are you ready to tell the C student (not yours of course), the kid who works 8 hours after school because he has to, that he has demoted the school? Please stop the ignorance.

Have the NJ High Schools rank the Magazine's available in NJ. Turn the tables.

Sandy,

That's quite insulting to me. Please re-read what I said; I think you're responding to a script that is of your own making.

I did not refer to the ranking, nor am I embarrassed by it. The numbers don't matter. I was simply stating that, in my experience, the Millburn schools aren't what they were a decade ago. My opinion, based on almost three decades in town. Your opinion may differ, and apparently does.

If you read what I said, you will notice that I most emphatically am NOT disparaging the C student, because he is precisely the student that I don't think the system is working for.

As regards the strong, talented, and inspirational people: each of my children had some of each. My point is simply that years ago, it was the norm that the teachers and administration were inspirational; more recently, those inspirational teachers have stood out because they have become more rare.

In any ranking, somebody has to be #1 and somebody has to be #8. Not a big deal, and as some of the other posters have pointed out, it's somewhat arbitrary. It is unfair, however, to ascribe views to me that were not at all expressed by me.

The School In August by Philip Larkin

The cloakroom pegs are empty now,
And locked the classroom door,
The hollow desks are lined with dust,
And slow across the floor
A sunbeam creeps between the chairs
Till the sun shines no more.

Who did their hair before this glass?
Who scratched 'Elaine loves Jill'
One drowsy summer sewing-class
With scissors on the sill?
Who practised this piano
Whose notes are now so still?

Ah, notices are taken down,
And scorebooks stowed away,
And seniors grow tomorrow
From the juniors today,
And even swimming groups can fade,
Games mistresses turn grey.

Why are SAT scores indicative of the success of a school? So many students are tutored, some starting in elementary school. SAT scores tell you how good a job the tutors did. Schools should be measured by how well they prepare all their students for post-high school education and/or the workplace. How are these students doing 10 years post- high school graduation?

One thing that seems to be important here that we should be discussing is the topic of class size. All school districts in the state are facing a budget crunch, some much worse than ours. However, Millburn seems to be about the worst in the top group at using our budget to hire enough teacher.

If you look at the top 15 schools on this list, Millburn is the worst in terms of class size. We are also 12th out of 15 in terms of student/faculty ratio. With a little math using these as well as the class size, one can determine the ratio of teachers to non teachers. In this ratio Millburn is 14th out of 15.

So not only do we have considerably fewer teachers per student than most in the top group, but we also have significantly more administrators per teacher. Perhaps the board can discuss this with Dr. C. Are his administrators more ineffective than other school disctricts in our peer group, so we need far more of them than average? The data shows that a wise choice for MHS would be to cut some admins and replace them with teachers. If we were to just cut 10% of admins and replace them with the same number of teachers, our average class size would drop to about 18! Can anyone seriously argue that this would be a bad thing for our kids?

Pretty sure a bunch of new high school teachers were included in the most recent budget

The rankings do not even make sense.

This really is great news. I'd prefer to have the school we have (which is pretty great) and stay below the hype radar. Being "number 1" in a mostly irrelevant ranking just attracts people to move into town and move out as soon as their kids graduate. I'd rather people be attracted on balance to the rest of what we have.

Here's to not being number 1.

I taught for 10 years, not in Millburn, and left to start my own business. I put in 18 hr days for almost 2 years to get my business of the ground, but I got back that feeling of value and satisfaction that dried up the last years I taught. I mention all this because it gives me the credibility to bring up the following point.
For the past few years, teachers have been demonized, ridiculed and marginalized. In every way ,teachers have been viewed as the problem for what's wrong with education. I have never treated my employees so dismissively. If I did, I would eventually them and word would spread that I don't provide a healthy place in which to work. If you, continually, "kick the dog", performance will suffer.
The smug members of the BOE have stated "where are they going to go?" in response to comments about the way in which the BOE handled the previous teacher contract negotiations. Like most social ills, you don't realize the erosion & decay until it has grown deep roots.
Check on the number and quality of Math and Science teachers applying to MHS. It used to be that Millburn, could afford to, hire only seasoned teachers with a minimum of 7-10 years experience. Those type of teachers don't even apply anymore. I have lived in Millburn for 20 years and am tuned to what goes on around town. We are all going to suffer, in terms of property value, when the decay in our schools becomes bad enough that salve and band aids can't hide it anymore.

This brings the attention to the change of the use in methodology in school rankings.

http://www.usnews.com/education/high-schools/articles/2012/05/07/best-high-schools-methodology
Best High Schools Methodology

This is a study on the change in the use of methodology on school rankings.  It seems to be more measure on whole body of students outcomes and vocational readiness.
 
AIR implemented U.S. News's comprehensive rankings methodology, which is based on the key principles that a great high school must serve all of its students well, not just those who are college-bound, and that it must be able to produce measurable academic outcomes to show the school is successfully educating its student body across a range of performance indicators. 

Superintendent: "We've maintained our elite achievements with fewer teachers than other schools,"

Except that the NJ Report Cards show only slight differences in the student/faculty ratios:

Glen Rock 10.0
Rumson-Fair Haven 10.3
Mountain Lakes 10.5
Madison 10.5
New Providence: 10.6
Kinnelon 10.7
MHS: 10.9
Tenafly: 11.2
Ridge 11.2

McNair: not reported

MHS is equidistant between New Providence and Tenafly, though both are ranked above MHS.

This suggests that we may not be allocating teachers well, i.e. not effectively managing section size.

Superintendent: "What does class size mean, it means the cost."

This is not so clear. Our classroom instructional cost per pupil is the second highest according to the most recent NJ School Report cards:

Mountain Lakes $11,031
MHS- $ 8,631
Tenafly $ 8,269
Glen Rock $ 8,113
Rumson-Fair Haven $7,903
New Providence: $ 7,770
Kinnelon $ 7,634
Madison $ 7,583
Ridge $7,272

McNair not reported

And our total cost per pupil is in the middle:

Mountain Lakes $ 22,398
Glen Rock $ 18,576
Rumson-Fair Haven $18,250
Madison $ 17,310
Tenafly $ 17,415
MHS- $ 17,392
Kinnelon $ 16,692
New Providence: $ 16,217
Ridge $15,671

McNair not reported

This means that we are putting our dollars into classroom instruction as compared to the other schools.

Meant to also give the source for the NJ Report Cards:
http://education.state.nj.us/rc/rc11/

The ranking put too much emphasis on class size. In the 62nd place, West Windsor-Plainsboro South is great in every way except class size.

Nancy Siegel can fix this. Just like she did in the UAW negotiations in 1973.

Could it be the change in ranking is directly attributable to the School Boards recent choice of Dr. Crisfield as the school districts Superintendent?