It's good to see public high schools get some love, as they did in a recent Newsweek report. The top 1, 300 schools in the nation were ranked on such factors as the number of students taking and passing Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate and/or Cambridge tests, graduating seniors, and how many students receive federally subsidized meals.

Public schools, like colleges, deserve to be ranked. It's what most homebuyers want to know when they move to a new neighborhood -- what are the schools like?

This survey shows, the schools are what you make them.

Of the top 100 public high schools, 45 are magnet, TAG, or charter schools. Put another way, these are schools have special permission from their independent school districts to require higher work and behavioral standards of students, in order to attend.

One quarter of the students are receiving subsidized lunches, which means they are thriving in these schools, despite impoverished backgrounds.

"The data is clear," says Jay Mathews, author, founder of the index, and education reporter for the Washington Post, "These are all schools that believe all kids, particularly average and low income kids, can do well on AP and IB if given enough time and encouragement. It is an attitudinal and cultural difference, shared by most of the other 1350 on the list."

Sadly that is only 5 percent of U.S. public schools, he adds.

That means the rest are hostage to the cacophony of interruptions at the typical high school.

Lauren Callender, a substitute teacher in Blytheville Senior High School in Arkansas, was socked in the jaw recently while trying to break up a fight between two students. Later in the day, she witnessed a girl slap a boy for making a remark. "Will you guys just give me a break," she said to her class.

It used to be that punching and hitting was enough to get a kid expelled, but that's no longer true. No wonder it's so hard for kids to learn.

Research shows that the schools with the highest academic achievements are those with the strongest parental and community involvement.

That's why stories like this matter. We need to be reminded that there are kids all over the country who want to achieve, and there are thousands of schools that need help.

What we need is to put a TAG program in every school, not to remove the higher-performing kids from the building and put them in some rarefied setting. It's those kids who set the example and give other students achievement and behavior to emulate. If they're not around, they're not around to imitate.

We can do better, and the results of this survey prove it.

Published: May 22, 2008

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Blanche Evans is the award-winning senior editor of Realty Times, the Internet's leading independent real estate news service. She is featured daily on the Realty Times Video Network in the "Realty Viewpoint" segment. Blanche has been named one of the "25 Most Influential People In Real Estate" by REALTOR Magazine, and has been twice recognized as a "notable." In 2005, she was named "Top Reporter Covering the NAR" by Delahaye-Bacon's. Blanche is a renowned author of five real estate books. Her newest, Bubbles, Booms and Busts: Make Money In Any Real Estate Market, McGraw-Hill, was rave-reviewed by The New York Times. She was also selected from hundreds of real estate experts to contribute to Donald Trump's book, Trump: The Best Real Estate Advice I Ever Received: 100 Top Experts Share Their Strategies, Rutledge Hill Press, and is featured on page 68. Order Now Review - Honors In 2006, Blanche was selected among scores of candidates to author two consumer real estate guidebooks for the National Association of Realtors: The NAR Guide to Home Buying, and The NAR Guide to Home Selling, Wiley & Sons. She is currently planning two new books for the NAR and its members.       Known for her keen insight into real estate industry issues and for her ability to make complex subjects easy to understand, Blanche is a sought-after keynote and continuing education speaker. Real estate organizations from MLSs, to brokerages, to franchisors, to associations hire her to provide up-to-the-minute analysis of real estate industry news and advice on how to improve revenues. Her passionate delivery, peppered with stinging wit, is a huge hit with audiences and fans. Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors, Blanche Evans, Richard Courtney, president 2007, GRAR "The GNAR membership meeting last week featured Blanche Evans as the keynote speaker. Her comments and insights resonated extremely well with those in attendance and we have had many requests for copies of her PowerPoint Presentation. She was a terrific part of the membership meeting and convention program!" - Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors Coverage from WSMV, Nashville - 8-14-2007 That Interview Guy - Get Inside The Head Of Today's Generation 2007 AE Institute Session - To purchase 2006 AE Institute Session - Parts 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 HouseValues Mastermind call - Parts 1 2 Blanche's fireside chat with Jeremy Conaway, HAR - Click here. To contact Blanche, email her at . For more articles by Blanche, click here.