4 DPS high schools named to Newsweek Top 1,200 list
Jordan, Riverside and Northern high schools and Durham School of the Arts made this year’s list. As such, these schools are considered to be in the top 5 percent of U.S. high schools based on the measures used in this ranking.
Three of the four DPS high schools originally were omitted from the original list published in late May. DPS then provided data to The Washington Post columnist Jay Mathews, the list’s creator. Mathews verified the information and added the DPS high schools to the list. The complete list can be found on the Web at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12532678/site/newsweek/
Public schools are ranked according to a ratio devised by Mathews. The ratio is calculated with the number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and/or Cambridge tests taken by all students at a school in 2006 divided by the number of graduating seniors. According to Newsweek, all of the schools on the list have an index of at least 1.000; they are in the top 5 percent of public schools measured this way.
Here’s how the DPS schools’ rankings stack up:
• Jordan: 307
• DSA: 346
• Riverside: 835
• Northern: 928
DPS high schools are implementing numerous efforts to make their academic offerings more rigorous and relevant and to develop closer relationships among teachers and students. A key part of the high school reform is developing Professional Learning Communities with the focus on student achievement.
“We are very pleased that four of our high schools made this prestigious list,” said Superintendent Carl Harris. “In our Advanced Academics focus, we are encouraging more and more students to challenge themselves by taking tougher courses. These courses require students to work hard and ultimately, will result in students who are better prepared for college coursework.”
