Haven High School Tabbed as One of America’s Best
By Tracy Giddens, Principal
January 11, 2010
U.S. News and World Report completed a study of over 21,000 public high schools to identify the most outstanding. The methodology is based on the key principles that a great high school must serve all of its students well, not just those that are college-bound, and that it also must be able to produce measurable academic outcomes to show that the school is successfully educating its student body across a range of performance indicators.
A three-step process determined the best high schools. The first step determined whether each school’s students were performing better than statistically expected for the average student in the state. Reading and math results were examined for each school’s state assessments. The percentage of economically disadvantaged students enrolled at the school was then factored in to identify schools that were performing better than statistical expectations.
For schools that made it past the first step, the second step determined whether the school’s least-advantaged students (black, Hispanic, and low income) were performing better than average for similar students in the state. Again, math and reading proficiency rates for disadvantaged students were compared to the statewide results for these student groups. Schools were selected if they were performing better than the state’s average.
Schools became eligible for the third step-being judged nationally based on college-readiness performance- by using Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate (IB) test data. The top 100 schools were awarded gold medals. Schools that did not have Advanced Placement or IB programs were not eligible to be top 100 high schools, but those schools that passed the first two steps were awarded bronze medal status. Haven High School has been awarded a bronze medal by U.S. News and World Report based on state assessment performance and its successful education across the entire student body.
