"It seems to be inspired toward generating negative taxpayer input rather than evaluating schools."

The rankings have come into question however because of the controversial method used to evaluate schools.

Evaluating schools in this country has always been a political battlefield.

Even before the tests, some teachers and school administrators spoke out against using the results to evaluate schools.

"It does not make sense to evaluate high schools on this basis alone," he said.

Such tests, his advisers argued, would show students why they need to study, enforce higher educational standards and help parents evaluate schools.

He concluded that the standardized test scores used to evaluate public schools were not always what they appeared to be.

Responding to the criticisms last year, officials revised their method of evaluating schools.

Learn about the controversy behind them and how best to evaluate schools.

Dr. Rizzo has also designed two tools for evaluating schools.