Best High School Rankings

Several news organizations have published their annual ratings and reviews of high schools. Several Spring Branch ISD campuses ranked well in these annual ratings. 

U.S. News & World Report 

http://www.usnews.com/education/high-schools/articles/2013/04/23/us-news-releases-2013-best-high-schools-rankings 

Memorial and Stratford high schools earned national Gold Medal awards, and the district’s public charter secondary school, Westchester Academy for International Studies, brought home a national Silver Medal in this news group’s rankings.

Nationally, the three SBISD high schools were ranked 233 (Memorial), 500 (Stratford), and 1,172 (Westchester Academy).

U.S. News & World uses a formula to rank 18,196 public high schools across the nation based on 2011 Advanced Placement performance, college readiness standards and academic performance among black, Hispanic and low-income students.

At the state level, the schools were ranked 32 (Memorial), 53 (Stratford) and 111 (Westchester Academy).

Spring Woods and Northbrook high schools were not ranked.

Newsweek/The Daily Beast 

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/features/2013/americas-best-high-schools.html 

Memorial and Stratford high schools joined Westchester Academy on this group’s ranking of the best 2,000 public high schools in the nation. Memorial ranked 254 on this list, followed by Stratford at 774 and Westchester at 924.

According to editors, these top 2,000 public high schools are the best for turning out college-ready grads. Rankings are based on six factors – graduation rate (25 percent); college acceptance rate (25 percent); AP/IB/AICE (Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate or Advanced International Certificate of Education) tests taken per student (25 percent); average SAT/ACT scores (10 percent); average AP/IB/AICE scores (10 percent); and percent of students enrolled in at least one advanced level course like AP/IB or AICE (5 percent).

Washington Post’s Most Challenging High Schools

http://apps.washingtonpost.com/local/highschoolchallenge/schools/2013/list/texas-schools/

Based on self-reported information, Stratford High was ranked 58th statewide among Texas high schools. High schools in this ranking earn an index score that is determined by the number of college-level tests given at a school in 2012 divided by the number of graduates that year. Also noted are the percentage of students who qualify for lunch subsidies and the percentage of graduates who passed at least one college-level test during their high school career.