Westport’s Staples High School ranks fifth in the state in the U.S. News rankings released today of the nation’s top high schools. Nationally, Staples was ranked No. 302.
U.S. News said while the previous high school rankings published in December 2009 included information on 1,800 schools, the 2012 rankings include data on almost 22,000 public high schools.
In Connecticut, the top ranked schools and their national rankings were:
1. (14 nationally) Connecticut International Baccalaureate Academy, East Hartford;
2. (200) Conard High School, West Hartford
3. (226) Ridgefield High School
4. (270) Weston High School
5. (302) Staples High School
6. (322) William H. Hall High School, West Hartford
7. (324) Darien High School
8. (335) Wilton High School
9. (340) Simsbury High School
10. (344) Farmington High School
U.S News gave this overview of Staples: “Staples High School is ranked 5th within Connecticut. Students have the opportunity to take Advanced Placement coursework and exams.
“The AP participation rate at Staples High School is 57 percent. The student body makeup is 50 percent male and 50 percent female, and the total minority enrollment is 8 percent. Staples High School is the only high school in the Westport School District.”
In the U.S. News Best High Schools 2012 rankings, Connecticut has 12 gold medal schools, including Staples, 25 silver medal schools, and 10 bronze medal schools.
A gold medal means the school is in the top 500 in the nation on the basis of college readiness. Silver schools were between 501 through 2008, with a college readiness at or above the median. Schools ranked between No. 2,009 and No. 4,813 were bronze medal winners.
Some of Connecticut’s best high schools are located in the Hartford School District, the magazine noted.
U.S. News said it partnered with the Washington, D.C.-based American Institutes for Research (AIR), which implemented U.S. News’s rankings methodology.
To determine the Best High Schools national rankings, schools were first analyzed at the state level in terms of how well students in each school performed on state assessments, taking into account the test scores of disadvantaged students (low-income, Hispanic, and black), who tend to score lower on tests, U.S News said.
High schools that made it through this analysis were then eligible to be ranked nationally, in terms of college readiness.
U.S. News said it determines the degree to which schools prepare students for college-level work by analyzing student success in Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) programs, both of which include college-level courses.
U.S. News said it awarded more than 4,850 gold, silver, and bronze medals to the top-performing schools.
What, in the name of anything considered holy, is good about being ranked the FIFTH best in ANYTHING…with the money we spend on the schools (I mean on bloated salaries for administrators and some of the state’s highest for teachers whether they are any good or not) we damned well should be FIRST and not an also ran fifth!