Caddo Magnet HS: 8th best secondary school in Louisiana. CE Byrd HS: 15th. In private high schools in Louisiana: Loyola College Prep, 8th best.

Niche.com has undertaken a ranking of America’s schools. Their Best Public High Schools section “ranks 14,431 high schools based on dozens of key statistics and 4.6 million opinions from 280,000 students and parents.” They were founded in 2002 by Carnegie Mellon University students as CollegeProwler.com.

“We’ve since grown into one of the largest content startups in the country,” says Niche.

While such evaluations are always arguable, Niche seems clear about its methodology.

Part of each school’s score is based on student interviews. Some of the quotes portray well spoken youngsters: “The healthy food options at Caddo Magnet High school are improving each and every year. Last year, our vending machines were not required to sell reduced fat items, but this year the school must have only reduced fat items in the vending machines.”

Other quotes leave a reader askance: “Some of the people from the office are very much disliked because of the way they handle certain situations. One example is a woman in charge of discipline or something and she doesn’t do a good job of selecting the most innapporpriate [sic] of the bunch and it is clear to all of us at the school. Some of the office workers are doing their jobs and it makes us as the students dislike them understandably.”

There are additional rankings. In Best Academics – Public High Schools in Louisiana – Caddo Magnet is ranked 6th. In Best High School Teachers in Louisiana, Caddo Magnet is ranked 5th. In Best Administration, CE Byrd is ranked 5th and Caddo Magnet 7th. In Best Facilities, Byrd is 9th, Caddo Magnet is 12th.

Regardless of the public’s judgment as to the accuracy of such rankings, Niche.com is providing a wealth of easily readable info about schools. At first read, the stats seem presented clearly and in such a way that teachers and administrators, as well as parents and students, may well pay attention.

Large and downloadable version of the Class of 2014 photo here.