Lynn English - Best High School 2008

 

U.S. News & World Report—in collaboration with School Evaluation Services, a 12

education and data research and analysis business that provides parents with education

data on schoolmatters.com— analyzed academic and enrollment data from more than

18,000 public high schools to find the very best across the country. These

top schools were placed into gold, silver, or bronze medal categories.

 

The Ranking Formula - How we got from 18,790 public schools to the top 100

     By Robert Morse      Posted November 29, 2007

 

The 2008 U.S .News & World Report America's Best High Schools methodology,

developed by School Evaluation Services, a K-12 education data research business run by

Standard & Poor's, is based on the key principles that a great high school must

serve all its students well, not just those who are bound for college, and that it

must be able to produce measurable academic outcomes that show the school is

successfully educating its student body across a range of performance indicators.

 

 

Essex County, Massachusetts Awards

 

 

Poverty-Advanced       Disadvantaged      College            Minority         Disadvantaged

          Performance                Student                  Readiness       Enrollment     Student                          Award

                                                                            Performance          Index                                      Enrollment

                                                                            Gap

 

 

Lynn English High, Lynn, MA

 

 

 

                                                1.31                                 12.4                       Not Applicable                46.1%                    65.8%                     Bronze

 

 

 

Classical High, Lynn, MA

 

 

 

                                                 1.40                                3.5                        Not Applicable                 35.3%                   65.1%                     Bronze

 

 

 

Manchester Junior- Senior High, Manchester, MA

 

 

 

                                               1.21                         Not Available                           44.6                         0.0%                    4.3%                       Silver

 

 

 

Judging: The first step determined whether each school's students were performing

better than statistically expected for the average student in their state. We started by

looking at reading and math test 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 those first two steps became eligible to be judged nationally

on the final step: college-readiness performance, using Advanced Placement data as the

benchmark 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

participation rate (the number of 12th-grade students who took at least one AP test before

or during their senior year, divided by the number of 12th graders) along with how well

the students did on those AP tests or quality-adjusted AP participation (the number of

12th-grade students who took and passed (received an AP score of 3 or higher) at least

one AP test before or during their senior year, divided by the number of 12th graders at

that school).

 

For the college readiness index, the quality-adjusted AP participation rates were weighted

75 percent in the calculation and 25 percent of the weight was placed on the simple AP

participation rate. Only schools that had values greater than 20 in their college

readiness index scored high enough to meet this criterion for gold medal

selection. The minimum of 20 was used since 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 exams passed per test taker) and awarded gold medals. The

next 405 top-performing high schools nationwide based on their college

readiness index earned silver medals. An additional 1,086 high schools in

40 states that passed the first two steps were awarded bronze medals.