U.S. News ranks America’s Best High Schools for third consecutive year
Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Va., the top school in U.S. News & World Report‘s America’s Best High Schools rankings, is designed to challenge students. A course load of offerings that include DNA science, neurology, and quantum physics would seem to be more than enough to meet that goal. But students and the faculty felt those classes weren’t enough, so they decided to tackle another big question: What are the social responsibilities of educated people? Over the course of the school year, students are exploring social responsibility through projects of their own design, ranging from getting school supplies for students with cerebral palsy in Shanghai to persuading their classmates to use handkerchiefs to reduce paper waste. The One Question project demonstrates the way “TJ,” as it’s referred to by students and teachers, encourages the wide-ranging interests of its students.
“None of our students have the same passion,” says TJ Principal Evan Glazer. “But having a passion is widely accepted and embraced.”
This enthusiasm has placed TJ at the top of the America’s Best High Schools ranking for each of the three years that U.S. News has ranked high schools. U.S. News uses a three-step process that analyzes first how schools are educating all of their students, then their minority and disadvantaged students, and finally their collegebound students based on student scores on statewide tests, Advanced Placement tests, and International Baccalaureate tests.
Of the 21,786 public high schools examined by U.S. News and its partner in the project, School Evaluation Services, 1,750 were recognized for considerably outperforming their state’s standards. In that group, there were 561 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 110 high schools that earned recognition, followed by New York (53 schools), Texas (50 schools), Illinois (37 schools), Florida (24 schools), and Massachusetts (21 schools). Nebraska and Oklahoma did not have sufficient information for their high schools to participate fully in the analysis, which involves a three-step process that examines how well a school serves its entire student body (average students, disadvantaged students, and collegebound students).
One major challenge all of the nation’s best public high schools are facing is how to continue to challenge students despite budget pressures. Although the federal stimulus money has helped many school districts retain teachers who otherwise would have been laid off, many schools are finding it difficult to renovate—or even maintain—their older buildings. At Martin Luther King Academic Magnet High School in Nashville, No. 30 on the list, students and faculty have found ways to achieve in a 1930s-era building in which the roof leaks, kids eat lunch in the hallways because the cafeteria is too small, and rats sometimes raid the vending machines. “All of Nashville should be concerned that we are educating the best and brightest in a broken-down building,” says Shunn Turner, principal of MLK high school.
That hasn’t stopped the students from learning or getting into Ivy League schools such as Harvard. “With all the amazing teachers, students, counselors, and staff, there was no need to focus on why the lockers didn’t open half the time or why the soccer team changed outside,” says Jake Rudin, an ’09 MLK graduate who currently is a freshman at Cornell University.
Top 25 of America’s Best High Schools – Gold Medal Rank
1. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology
Location: Alexandria, VA
Enrollment: 1,805
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 1.3
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 4.9
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 6.9
College Readiness Index: 100.0
2. International Academy
Location: Bloomfield Hills, MI
Enrollment: 157
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 0.6
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 3.2
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 5.7
College Readiness Index: 100.0
3. Whitney High School
Location: Cerritos, CA
Enrollment: 984
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 11.0
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 11.5
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 4.1
College Readiness Index: 100.0
4. Oxford Academy
Location: Cypress, CA
Enrollment: 1.021
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 19.0
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 12.7
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 5.0
College Readiness Index: 100.0
5. School for the Talented and Gifted at Yvonne A. Ewell Townview Center
Location: Dallas, TX
Enrollment: 209
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 24.9
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 51.2
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 8.0
College Readiness Index: 100.0
6. Newcomers High School
Location: Long Island City, NY
Enrollment: 1,016
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 79.0
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 60.7
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 1.6
College Readiness Index: 100.0
7. Pacific Collegiate School
Location: Santa Cruz, CA
Enrollment: 383
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 0.0
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 8.4
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 4.5
College Readiness Index: 100.0
8. School of Science and Engineering Magnet
Location: Dallas, TX
Enrollment: 391
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 48.3
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 72.4
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 5.1
College Readiness Index: 100.0
9. BASIS Tucson
Location: Tucson, AZ
Enrollment: 527
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 0.0
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 24.9
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 4.7
College Readiness Index: 100.0
10. International School
Location: Bellevue, WA
Enrollment: 509
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 3.6
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 1.7
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 3.8
College Readiness Index: 100.0
11. High Technology High School
Location: Lincroft, NJ
Enrollment: 255
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): n.a.
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 7.1
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 3.6
College Readiness Index: 98.9
12. Academic Magnet High School
Location: No. Charleston, SC
Enrollment: 598
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 7.4
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 18.1
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 4.7
College Readiness Index: 98.2
13. IDEA Quest Academy & College Prepatory
Location: Donna, TX
Enrollment: 644
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 77.8
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 96.3
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 1.1
College Readiness Index: 97.7
14. Pine View School
Location: Osprey, FL
Enrollment: 2,209
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 4.8
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 6.4
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 4.3
College Readiness Index: 96.8
15. Design and Architecture Senior High School
Location: Miami, FL
Enrollment: 483
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 31.3
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 69.0
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 2.7
College Readiness Index: 96.7
16. KIPP Houston High School
Location: Houston, TX
Enrollment: 633
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 87.5
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 97.6
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 1.1
College Readiness Index: 95.7
17. Stanton College Preparatory School
Location: Jacksonville, FL
Enrollment: 1,458
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 8.0
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 24.1
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 4.6
College Readiness Index: 95.6
18. The Early College at Guilford
Location: Greensboro, NC
Enrollment: 191
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 6.2
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 10.9
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 4.0
College Readiness Index: 95.4
19. The High School of American Studies at Lehman College
Location: Bronx, NY
Enrollment: 332
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 31.0
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 43.7
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 2.9
College Readiness Index: 94.8
20. Loveless Academic Magnet Program High School
Location: Montgomery, AL
Enrollment: 400
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 11.0
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 31.5
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 3.5
College Readiness Index: 94.2
21. University High School
Location: Tucson, AZ
Enrollment: 723
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 11.1
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 25.3
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 5.1
College Readiness Index: 92.9
22. California Academy of Math & Science
Location: Carson, CA
Enrollment: 589
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 37.0
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 48.0
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 2.1
College Readiness Index: 92.1
23. Animo Leadership Charter High School
Location: Inglewood, CA
Enrollment: 525
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 75.0
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 99.6
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 0.9
College Readiness Index: 91.6
24. Raleigh Charter High School
Location: Raleigh, NC
Enrollment: 528
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): n.a.
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 10.4
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 4.9
College Readiness Index: 91.2
25. Lennox Mathematics, Science & Technology Academy
Location: Lennox, CA
Enrollment: 468
Economically Disadvantaged Students (% of Total Enrollment): 88.0
Minority Enrollment (% of Total): 99.4
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Taker: 1.5
College Readiness Index: 90.5