We analyzed 21,069 public high schools in 48 states, using data from the 2006-2007 school year (Nebraska, Oklahoma and Washington, D.C., did not make sufficient data for the 2006-2007 school year available). This is the total number of public high schools in each state that had 12th grade enrollment and sufficient data to analyze primarily for the 2006-2007 school year. A three-step process determined the best high schools. The first two steps ensured that the schools serve all their students well, using state proficiency standards as the measuring benchmarks. For those schools that made it past the first two steps, a third step assessed the degree to which schools prepare students for college-level work.

The first step determined whether each school’s students were performing better than statistically expected for the average student in the state. We started by looking at reading and math results for all students on each state’s high school test. We then factored in the percentage of economically disadvantaged students (who tend to score lower) enrolled at the school to find which schools were performing better than their statistical expectations.

For those schools that made it past this first step, the second step determined whether the school’s least-advantaged students (black, Hispanic and low income) were performing better than average for similar students in the state. We compared each school’s math and reading proficiency rates for disadvantaged students with the statewide results for these disadvantaged student groups and then selected schools that were performing better than this state average.

Schools that made it through the first two steps became eligible to be judged nationally on the final step, college-readiness performance, using Advanced Placement and/or International Baccalaureate test data as the benchmarks for success. (AP is a College Board program that offers college-level courses at high schools across the country.)

This third step measured which schools produced the best college-level achievement for the highest percentages of their students. This was done by computing a “college readiness index” based on the weighted average of the AP and/or IB participation rate (the number of 12th-grade students who took at least one AP and/or IB test before or during their senior year, divided by the number of 12th graders) along with how well the students did on those tests. The latter part, called quality-adjusted AP and/or IB participation, is the number of 12th-grade students who took and passed (received an AP score of 3 or higher or an IB score of 4 or higher) at least one of the tests before or during their senior year, divided by the number of 12th graders at that school.

For the college readiness index, the quality-adjusted participation rate was weighted 75 percent in the calculation, and 25 percent of the weight was placed on the simple AP and/or IB participation rate. Only schools that had values greater than 20 in their college readiness index scored high enough to meet this criterion for gold and silver medal selection. The minimum of 20 was used because it represents what it would take to have a “critical mass” of students gaining access to college-level coursework.

The top 100 high schools nationwide with the highest college readiness index scores were ranked numerically (ties were broken using the average number of AP and/or IB exams passed per test taker) and awarded gold medals. The next 504 top-performing high schools nationwide based on their college readiness index scores earned silver medals.

The 1,321 high schools in 48 states that passed the first two steps were awarded bronze medals. Seventeen more high schools in nine states received an honorable-mention medal if they scored high enough on the college readiness index to earn a gold medal but didn’t fully meet steps one and two.

A 2006 study by AllianceBernstein Investments found that half of parents surveyed spent more on vacations in the past year than they saved for their kids’ college funds. Even more startling was the finding that 58 percent spent more on dining out or ordering takeout.

Overall, parents tend to overestimate the amount of financial aid available, and the majority of those surveyed believed that their kids have special talents that would make them worthy of scholarships. They also failed to adjust the cost of college over years of inflation. Seventy percent of parents who expect their children to go to college don’t have a financial plan in place to help them meet their goals.

Estimating how much money you’ll need is the first step in formulating an education savings plan. An online calculator can help you project your college costs. We recommend the Motley Fool’s online calculator for its ease of use and accuracy.

Here’s a rough breakdown of average yearly college costs to give you an idea of what kind of money you’re dealing with:

Four-year public colleges
• Average tuition and fees, in-state students: $6,185
• With room and board charges, in-state students: $13,598
• After grant aid and tax benefits are considered, full-time students enrolled in public four-year colleges and universities pay on average about $2,600 in net tuition and fees.

Four-year private colleges
• Average tuition and fees: $23,712
• With room and board charges: $32,307
• After grant aid and tax benefits are considered, full-time students enrolled in private four-year colleges and universities pay on average about $14,400 in net tuition and fees.

Two-year public colleges
• Average tuition and fees: $2,361
• After grant aid and tax benefits are considered, full-time students enrolled in public two-year colleges pay on average about $320 in net tuition and fees.
—Source: “Trends in College Pricing 2007,” the College Board

1. Thomas Jefferson High School (Alexandria, Va.)
2. Oxford Academy (Cypress, Calif.)
3. Pacific Collegiate Charter (Santa Cruz, Calif.)
4. High Technology High School (Lincroft, N.J.)
5. Design & Architectural Senior High (Miami, Fla.)
6. International Academy (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.)
7. International Baccalaureate School at BHS (Bartow, Fla.)
8. Preuss School UCSD (La Jolla, Calif.)
9. Academic Magnet High School (Charleston, S.C.)
10. Gretchen Whitney High (Cerritos, Calif.)
11. Pine View School (Osprey, Fla.)
12. Maine School of Science & Math (Limestone, Maine)
13. Basis Tucson (Tucson, Ariz.)
14. International School (Bellevue, Wa.)
15. Ridgeview Classical Charter Schools (Fort Collins, Co.)
16. Benjamin Franklin Senior High School (New Orleans, La.)
17. Early College at Guilford (Greensboro, N.C.)
18. School of Science & Engineering (Dallas, Texas)
19. Idea College Preparatory (Donna, Texas)
20. Raleigh Charter High (Raleigh, N.C.)
21. Lennox Mathematics, Science, and Technology Academy (Lennox, Calif.)
22. University High School (Tucson, Ariz.)
23. Stuyvesant High School (New York)
24. International Community School (Kirkland, Wa.)
25. Loveless Academic Magnet Program High School (Montgomery, Ala.)

Of the 21,069 public high schools examined by U.S. News and its partner in the project, School Evaluation Services, 1,925 were recognized for considerably outperforming their state’s standards. In that group, there were 604 schools that also were found to be doing an excellent job of preparing students for college-level coursework.

California leads the nation this year with 209 high schools that earned recognition, followed by Texas (151 schools), New York (105 schools), Ohio (87 schools), Michigan (74 schools) and Illinois (71 schools). Nebraska, Oklahoma and the District of Columbia did not have sufficient information for their high schools to participate fully in the analysis.

The ranking is based on a three-step process that examines how well a school serves its entire student body (average students, disadvantaged students and college-bound students). This is the second year U.S. News has ranked high schools.

Best of the best
Known as “TJ” to its students and faculty, Thomas Jefferson is a magnet high school that draws its students from among the best that suburban Washington, D.C., has to offer. The competitive academic environment at the school both challenges and rewards its student body. The students “feed off of each other and create a kind of synergy for thinking,” says Thomas Jefferson principal Evan Glazer. TJ students are also able to take advantage of such high-tech course offerings as DNA Science II and Advanced Optics with Research Applications.

Other top schools
This emphasis on math and science education is shared by many of the schools that made the U.S. News list this year — ranging from suburban Los Angeles’ California Academy of Mathematics and Science (No. 26) to Lincroft, N.J.’s High Technology High School (No. 4).

Improving students’ performance in math and the sciences is one of the key challenges the nation’s high schools face as they prepare students to compete in the global work force. Once a leader in teaching these disciplines, the United States now is far behind other countries. Out of 30 industrialized nations, America ranks 25th in math and 21st in science.
Economists estimate that the nation’s economy would grow by 4.5 percentage points over 20 years if America caught up to the leaders. “In a global economy, the best jobs are not going to go to the best in your class but to the best in the world,” says Gary Phillips, a chief scientist for the American Institutes for Research in Washington, D.C.

Turns out that’s not such a crazy idea. Following the completion of Adobe’s acquisition of Macromedia in 2005, the company’s brass actually toyed with the idea.

“We looked at making our own browser,” said Adobe’s chief technology officer, Kevin Lynch, in an interview leading up to this week’s Adobe Max conference. “We thought about how to advance the capabilities of the Web.”

At first blush, that sounds like a fit with the message Adobe attaches to Flash as a technology to foster delivery of “applications, content, and video to the widest possible audience.” But the idea ultimately failed to persuade management that it was wise to commit the resources (and in the process pick another fight with Microsoft.) “Our primary interest is to build a great platform upon which others can build great applications,” Lynch said. “There are enough browsers in the world.”

For Adobe, the temptation was to create a product that would do a better job of enabling its technologies on client systems. But Lynch said the green light hinged on whether an Adobe browser would win wide enough distribution. As even Google is discovering, that’s not an easy goal to achieve.

“It’s brave of (Google) to come out with a browser,” he said. “I love to see innovation. But will Chrome get 80 or 90 percent reach? I don’t see how that’s possible.”

The SVSP enables online data migration, thin provisioning, improved storage utilization and data replication. Based on software from LSI, SVSP is an out-of-band, split-path virtualization technology – in SVSP data flow is separated from the management process, thus facilitating the ability to handle larger workloads.

The SVSP makes use of a QLogic switch as a data mover. A separate management server is part of the package. SVSP supports EMC Clariion, IBM Fast and DS4000, SGI’s storage systems and Sun’s FlexLine and 6000.

SVSP competes with IBM’s SAN Volume Controller and EMC’s Invista as well as controller-based virtualization approaches from vendors such as Hitachi Data Systems. HP at present has controller-based heterogeneous replication in its high-end XP product line.

Earlier this year, TheInfoPro set its sights on storage virtualization – the research firm estimates that 35% of Fortune 1000 companies are using the technology. This figure, TheInfoPro says will increase to 50% by 2009.

The package is expected to be available in December. A starting package of 4TB will be $43,900.

The report, now in its fifth year, is authored by Joanie Wexler, who also pens Network World’s Wireless newsletter. The first module from the report titled “Wi-Fi Attitudes Shift,” provides an overview of the WLAN as a whole. For instance, so far as deployment is concerned, Joanie points out that “Nearly half of survey respondents (47%) said that 51% to 100% of their employee populations are equipped with a Wi-Fi-enabled device, such as a laptop, smartphone or personal digital assistant (PDA). This figure is a measurable jump from last year, when just 34% said that half or more of their companies’ employees possessed Wi-Fi devices.”

The second module of the study is titled “WLAN Deployment Trends: Networks, Devices, Security.” This module points out, among many other more detailed findings, that security remains the primary concern regarding WLANs. Again, quoting Joanie, “47% of respondents cited ‘general security concerns’ as one of the two biggest challenges to scaling Wi-Fi deployments throughout most or all of their organizations. In a fairly distant second place were reliability and stability concerns related to Wi-Fi’s operation in unlicensed spectrum (31%).”

The deployment status of 802.11n is the focus of the just-released third module. In this segment of the report, a rapid acceptance of 11n is found to be underway, even though there are many nagging concerns. “Wi-Fi infrastructure and client upgrade costs” and “Waiting for final standards and standards-based products” were seen as the primary obstacles that were cited more than twice as often as other factors.

Both this report and the IP Telephony Management report are being released in progressive modules. As additional modules become available, we’ll be sure to let you know about

Such was the promise this week from Cisco and the New York Yankees as they discussed the $15 million to $16 million technology infrastructure and potential for the fan experience at the stadium, slated to open in April 2009.

From a Yankees widget on their mobile phone or PDA, fans will be able to view the game from different angle around the stadium, launch instant replays, access statistics specific to the game situation, and interact with other fans in a community of shared interest, Yankees and Cisco officials said.

“This is where high-tech is going,” Cisco CEO John Chambers said during the press conference. “We’re changing the fan experience. Video is the key word here.”

Added Hal Steinbrenner, co-chairman of the Yankees, “We’re working on fan amenities which will be second to none. The fan experience is of utmost importance to us. They will be amazed at a lot of the things available to them.”

There will be no TVs in the new Yankee Stadium, just 1,100 high-definition IPTV monitors that will provide various views, angles and information on the game — before, during and after — with content pushed to the monitors as appropriate. Along with the live game broadcast, monitors will be capable of simultaneously providing up-to-date sports scores, Yankees trivia, news and weather from a single viewing screen.

At the conclusions of games, these monitors will let the Yankees the direct patrons to the nearest exits and provide traffic information. In the event of an emergency, all stadium monitors can be mobilized to display evacuation instructions.

On non-game days, these same monitors can be used to display customized content and information for special events such as conferences, weddings and other group activities.

The infrastructure will be “completely wireless, top to bottom;” players will have touch screen computers at their lockers; and Cisco’s high-definition TelePresence virtual conferencing system will be installed at a library in the Bronx to allow students to interact with Yankee players.

“Yankee Stadium will be in a constant state-of-the-artness,” said Yankee Chief Operating Officer Lonn Trost in a statement that would make Yogi Berra proud.

Cisco officials say the stadium will be the most technologically advanced stadium in the country, if not the world. They said Cisco technology is used in 60% of the sporting venues in North America, including the new Cisco Field being built in Fremont, Calif. 

Fans in luxury suites can view the game from different angles by manipulating the touch screen of Cisco IP phones (compare unified communications products) in those suites. They will also be able to order concessions and Yankees merchandise for delivery to the suite.

Over time, fans will be able order food from their seats through their mobile phones, and high-definition screens on the exterior of the stadium will show what’s going on inside, Cisco officials said.

Cisco and the Yankees began discussions two and a half years ago on the technological infrastructure and application for the  stadium, which is replacing the venerable, 85-year-old “House the Ruth Built.”

“We had to have the best capabilities” in fan amenities at the new ballpark,” Trost said. “We had to step up and allow the fan experience to be improved.”

“This is the front edge of what sports and entertainment will be like” in the future, Cisco’s Chambers said. Like Star Trek…that’s where we’re going to go. This will change all of sports.”

Cisco said it is in active discussions with other sports franchises about upgrading their stadium fan experience with similar capabilities.

Media reports alleged that Microsoft had proposed paying the sum to a government contractor under a joint marketing agreement last year in order to persuade the contractor to replace Linux OS with Windows OS on thousands of school laptops

Although a joint marketing agreement was drafted to document the best practices for using technology in education, it was never executed, said Thomas Hansen, regional manager for Microsoft West, East and Central Africa. It became clear, he added, that one customer wanted a Linux OS.

“As such, the joint marketing agreement became irrelevant; no such marketing agreement was ever agreed to, and no money was ever spent,” he said.

Apart from the fact that Linux is freely distributed, it’s functionality, adaptability and robustness has made it the main alternative for proprietary Unix and Microsoft operating systems. Governments in Ghana, Namibia, Nigeria and South Africa have deployed Linux in departments and schools, but Hansen said that Microsoft has strong relationships with the governments in these countries.

“From our standpoint, those governments, and indeed every customer, should always decide which software solutions meet their needs most appropriately. We strongly believe that governments must carefully consider all costs of acquiring and using a PC, along with the benefits of widespread application availability, maintenance, and training,” he said.

Hansen emphasized that studies have shown that the Windows platform often costs the same as or less than Linux when the total cost of ownership is considered.

“Further, when the full range of user benefits are taken into account, such as the wide range of applications available, familiarity, and ease-of-use, Windows is often a much better overall value,” he said.

The basic problem that CMIS is attempting to solve is a serious one. Today, users employ a number of data repositories to do their work: e-mail systems; instant messaging systems; collaboration tools; CRM systems; production databases; and a host of additional tools, each of which typically have their own data stores. Further, most of these systems each have their own interface that IT must deploy and configure, and that end users must learn. This drives up IT and help desk costs and requires users to spend time learning a number of interfaces

What CMIS hopes to achieve is improved productivity by allowing individuals to learn and use a single interface through which they access the various data repositories they need to do their work. The benefits of such an approach include easier access to data for individuals, since they need learn only one interface to access various content repositories; easier deployment for IT because they are managing a more unified system; and less work for application developers who can develop a single interface for accessing all of the repositories that people need to do their work.

CMIS is a very good idea and one that should permit organizations and users to become more efficient as the proliferation of content repositories continues to expand.