Newsweek Releases 2015 High School Rankings

"America's Top High Schools" and High Schools

"Beating the Odds" Announced in Annual List

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Aug 19, 2015, 09:30 ET

NEW YORK, Aug. 19, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Newsweek, a premier weekly news magazine owned by IBT Media, today announced the results of the 2015 High School Rankings, created in partnership with Westat.

The rankings include a list of "America's Top High Schools" which identifies 500 public high schools nationwide that excel at preparing students for college as well as "Beating the Odds," a list of 500 public high schools doing an exceptional job of preparing students from disadvantaged backgrounds for college.

"America's Top High Schools" identifies top 500 schools by measuring factors including graduation rate, college enrollment rate, SAT and ACT scores and participation, AP/IB scores and participation, full time counselors to students ratio, dropout rate, enrollment in college courses during high school and state test scores. "Beating the Odds" ranks schools on all the above measures but also accounts for the effects of social inequality on education by factoring in student poverty as reflected by eligibility for free/reduced price lunches.

"Newsweek's High School Rankings are exceptional because of the many factors we take into consideration when selecting top schools as well as our look at inequality when it comes to education. We have unique insight into what public schools across the country are doing to prepare their students for college, which is a critical next step for graduating teens," said Jim Impoco, Editor in Chief of Newsweek. "Our analysis looks at a broad range of criteria and sheds light on schools that are setting the bar high for their students and helping them to succeed in the next chapter of their education."

Leading the Top 500 High Schools list:

Thomas Jefferson High (Alexandria, VA)
High Technology High School (Lincroft, NJ)
Academy for Mathematics Science and Engineering (Rockaway, NJ)
Union County Magnet High School (Scotch Plains, NJ)
Bergen County Academies (Hackensack, NJ)
Gretchen Whitney High (Cerritos, CA)
Middlesex County Academy for Math Science & Engineering (Edison, NJ)
International Academy (Bloomfield Hills, MI)
Academy of Allied Health and Science (Neptune, NJ)
Payton College Preparatory HS (Chicago, IL)

Leading the Top 500 High Schools that are "Beating the Odds":

Success Academy (Cedar City, UT)
Northside College Preparatory HS (Chicago, IL)
Transmountain Early College HS (El Paso, TX)
The Brooklyn Latin School (Brooklyn, NY)
West St. John High School (Edgard, LA)
Townsend Harris High School (Flushing, NY)
Payton College Preparatory HS (Chicago, IL)
Hollis F. Price Middle College High School (Memphis, TN)
San Gabriel High (San Gabriel, CA)
Valley View HS (Pharr, TX)

The full lists can be found online at: http://www.newsweek.com/high-schools/americas-top-high-schools-2015.

For more information about Newsweek, visit: newsweek.com. For use of the Newsweek High School Rankings 2015 logo, please contact PARS International: http://ibtreprints.com/newsweek-americas-top-high-schools/.

About Newsweek
Newsweek is a premier news magazine and website, bringing high-quality journalism to readers around the globe for over 80 years. Newsweek provides the latest news, in-depth analysis and ideas about international issues, technology, business, culture and politics. In addition to its online and mobile presence, Newsweek publishes weekly English print editions in the United States, Europe/Middle East/Africa and Asia as well as editions in Japanese, Korean, Polish, Serbian, Spanish and Czech. Newsweek is owned by IBT Media. For more information, visit: newsweek.com or corp.ibt.com.

Newsweek High School Rankings Methodology:
Newsweek teamed up with research partner Westat to develop a three-step methodology: Shortlist Analysis: We used publicly available data to evaluate schools based on proficiency rates on standardized state tests and surveyed the schools that met our minimum threshold requirements for college readiness data. Ranking Analysis: We evaluated those high schools that participated in our survey on six college readiness factors (for the "Beating the Odds" list, we controlled for student poverty). Equity (Gold Star) Analysis: Within the top high schools identified in the ranking analysis, we gave special recognition to schools whose economically disadvantaged students perform better than the state average on standardized state tests. Full methodology available online at: http://www.newsweek.com/high-schools/methodology-high-school-rankings-2015.

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