Boston Magazine is a fine publication with plenty of high quality writing, very popular columnists and the feverishly anticipated (albeit infamously flawed) ‚ÄúBest of‚Äù series. This month’s issue of the ‚Äú50 Best Public High Schools‚Äù is so flawed, that school systems across the state should be outraged, especially Somerville’s.

It doesn’t matter if Albert Einstein himself was on the panel analyzing and comparing data – there is no possible way to compare two communities or schools, never mind 141 of them, not in the two most heavily weighed categories – ‚ÄúCost Efficiency Ranking‚Äù and ‚ÄúAcademic Performance Ranking‚Äù – without breaking down the communities themselves into separate groupings of economic and sociologic demographics.

Seriously, if you think about it, how can one system – in an urban setting, with a heavy immigrant/bilingual/ESL student population and in-house SPED immersion/integration – compare with a very affluent, suburban, little to no immigrant/bilingual/ESL student population and literally 100 percent of its SPED students sent out of district?

How do you compare those two communities and high schools? Is it fair for a system, which performs remarkably well given the extenuating circumstances that come with such an urban setting, to be listed in the 70’s or 80’s in either category?

The answer is, simply, no.

The Mayor, the School Committee, the School Administration and most of all Рthe students, teachers and staff at Somerville High School should be outraged. We as a community should voice our opinion to Boston Magazine that regardless of how they skew the results or what kind of bell curve they scored their system, it is inherently flawed at its core and they should be much more careful with the way and manner in which they pick and choose their “Best of” lists.