Haines Borough School District officials this week said they were flattered – and a bit surprised – by an Internet-based company ranking the district No. 1 in Alaska.
“Niche Rankings 2015,” a college-rating website which bills itself as “one of the largest content startups in the country,” made the ranking, which circulated on Facebook early this week and was posted on the district’s website.
Officials of the school district and state education officials this week said they’d never heard of Niche. School district officials said they had nothing to do with the ranking, and have received no formal notification from Niche.
“While I do believe we are the best school district in Alaska (dedicated students and teachers, involved parents, strong community support), I don’t know from where our ‘Niche ranking’ is originating,” said principal Cheryl Stickler. “This is not something we actively pursued.”
Niche awarded the district “A’s” for “academics,” “administration and policies,” “extracurriculars,” “health and safety,” “resources and facilities” and “sports and fitness,” and “B’s” for “teachers,” “student culture and diversity” and “educational outcomes.”
Other districts ranked by Niche included Petersburg (3rd), Anchorage (9th), Juneau (12th) and Sitka (13th).
John Greeley, an editor for the Alaska Association of School Boards, said the website may have gleaned information from the state Department of Education website that ranks schools on a “star” rating system up to five stars, with an accompanying numeric value called an “Alaska School Performance Index.”
Under the state’s rankings for 2013-14, scores included Haines Elementary (4 stars; 90.21 ASPI), Haines High School (4 stars, 92.72), Haines Home School (4 stars, 93.46) and Mosquito Lake School (5 stars, 97.92).
“You’ve got all four- and five-star schools in Haines. That’s maybe one reason the school district is ranked highest (by Niche),” Greeley said.
“I guess it’s good news. It must mean something, but I don’t know. Every kid who graduates this year can say on their resume they graduated from the top-ranked school district in Alaska. If I were a kid, I’d do that,” Greeley said.
Lon Garrison, past president of the Alaska Association of School Boards, said the ranking may have used Internet information about the district and fed it through an algorithm, then added information from an online survey.
“It’s great that somebody thinks Haines is the top-ranked school district in the state, but how was that really assessed? Something like that is a little suspicious to me,” Garrison said.
Lilly Boron, a 16-year teacher for the district, this week said the ranking was “neat” and “pretty cool.” Boron teaches social studies, Spanish and cooking. “I think we do a lot with a little and it’s good for people to see that. It’s one of the reasons I’ve stayed on.”