U.S. News Announces America's Best High Schools

U.S. News and World Report issued their list of top U.S. high schools today and the good news is that many Westchester County schools made the grade. The study analyzed more that 21,000 public high schools to find what they believe are “the very best.” These schools were placed into gold, silver, bronze, or honorable mention categories.

How did they select the top schools? According to their site they first evaluated the schools by student’s performance on state proficiency exams, evaluating whether the school’s students were outperforming statistically expected averages for students in the state. Next they factored in the percentage of economically disadvantaged students in each school. The top schools that emerged from the state tests were then judged on their Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate test data and the school’s college readiness quotient, which evaluated the percentages of students taking AP or IB tests and the students' grades on the tests. The schools with the top “college readiness scores” were ranked and resulted in the rankings posted on the site.

Of course at a school such as Scarsdale High School, who has moved away from offering AP courses in favor of the AT curriculum, these criteria are somewhat irrelevant. But despite this move, Scarsdale emerged with a Silver award, most likely due to the strong performance on state tests and the number of students who elect to take the AP exams.  Edgemont Junior and Senior High school was awarded an Honorable Mention.

Here are the Westchester County list of winners and a link to the full report.

Blind Brook High School, Rye Brook                               Gold -#55 of 100
Bronxville High School, Bronxville                                  Honorable Mention
Byram Hills High School, Armonk                                   Silver
Edgemont Junior-Senior High School, Scarsdale              Honorable Mention
Hastings High School, Hastings                                      Honorable Mention
Horace Greely High School, Chappaqua                          Gold - #51 of 100
John Jay High School, Cross River                                  Honorable Mention
Rye High School, Rye                                                    Gold - #59 of 100
Saunders Trade and Technical High, Yonkers                    Bronze
Scarsdale High School, Scarsdale                                    Silver
Yonkers High School, Yonkers                                        Gold - #41 of 100

See the full report here