Last Thursday, CVHS was honored as a Silver Medalist by the U.S. News and World Report.

Every year, the U.S. News puts together “America’s Best Colleges,” a list of the top colleges and universities all across the nation. This year, they have created a new system to rank high schools in 40 different states.

“To ensure that U.S. News truly captures and recognizes the nation’s best high schools, we teamed with analysts from School Evaluation Services to develop an innovative methodology that allowed us to analyze how well high schools serve all students, not just those that perform at the top of their class,” explained Brian Kelly, editor of U.S. News in Review-Journal.

High schools were judged using a special three-step formula based on demographic data, student performance in state tests and Advanced Placement (AP) participation and pass rates.

First, the schools were chosen based on their ability to serve disadvantaged students. Results from math and reading tests were analyzed and factored in the percentage of low-income students. To be qualified, the performance level of these students were expected to exceed the standards given by the state.

Schools that passed the first step were then judged based on the performance of their low-income and minority students. In this step, math and reading proficiency rates were compared to average state test scores.

Lastly, each school was critiqued using a “college ready index” which was calculated using the number AP classes taken by seniors and their exam scores.

To put together the list of “America’s Best High Schools”, 18,790 public high schools were judged using data from the 2005 to 2006 school year.

The top 3% in the nation were honored as Gold and Silver Medalists. 100 schools were given Gold Medals and 405 were honored with Silver Medals. Schools that do not offer AP courses or do not meet the college-readiness requirement were honored with Bronze Medals.

“We’re ranked in the top 3% and that is impressive. When you rank well, it validates what we’re doing,” explained Principal Linda Evans. “But this doesn’t mean we’re done. There are many areas we can still work on.”

The purpose of the list is to recognize and encourage schools that prepare all students for postsecondary opportunities.

“Only 56% of last year’s graduated class met the a-g requirements... Our goal is to help the students reach the four-year college requirement,” said Evans. “We have set that as a goal for all our students.”

All four high schools in the Glendale Unified School District were included in the ranking. Hoover High School and Clark Magnet High School were named Silver Medalists while Glendale High School was named a Bronze Medalist.

The issue of “America’s Best High Schools” was published in the December issue of U.S. News.

“We have something special here... I want to commend the students because it’s their test scores that produced these ratings,” concluded Evans.