FTHS, Biotechnology Named in America's Best High Schools Ranking

Freehold Township High School and Biotechnology High School in Freehold Township were named one of the Best American High Schools according to a study by Newsweek Magazine.

Newsweek has been ranking schools for the past 10 years. The rankings are supposed to give a measure of success in challenging and preparing students for college and for life. This year, they changed their methodology for scoring each high school.

Newsweek contacted administrators, principals, guidance counselors, and Advanced Placement/International Baccalaureate coordinators at more than 10,000 public high schools across the country to come up with the 2011 list. To be considered one of the top high schools in America, each school had to complete a survey requesting specific data from the 2009-2010 academic year. From the original 10,000, more than 1,100 schools were assessed to produce the final list of the top 500 high schools.

A panel of experts—Wendy Kopp of Teach For America, Tom Vander Ark of Open Education Solutions (formerly executive director for education at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation), and Linda Darling-Hammond, Stanford professor of education and founder of the School Redesign Network—developed a yardstick that would truly calculate a school’s success in turning out students that are both college-ready and life-ready.

According to the study by Newsweek, FTHS was ranked number 391. Schools are ranked based on self-reported statistics. The rankings reveal that FTHS has a student-teacher ratio of 23.5, a 100 percent graduation rate, of the student graduating, 96 percent go to college, and the average SAT score is 1567.

Biotechnology High School was ranked 25. The school has a student-teacher ratio of 12.1, a 100 percent graduation, and an average SAT score of 1960. Approximately 98 percent of the student body goes on to college.

Below is the score card of how each school was ranked from the Newsweek website:

Four-year, on-time graduation rate(25%): Based on the standards set forth by the National Governors Association, this is calculated by dividing the number of graduates in 2010 by the number of 9th graders 2006 plus transfers in minus transfers out. Unlike other formulas, this does not count students who took longer than four years to complete high school. 

Percent of 2010 graduates who enrolled immediately in college (25%): This metric excludes students who did not enroll due to lack of acceptance or gap year.

AP/IB/AICE tests per graduate (25%): This metric is designed to measure the degree to which each school is challenging its students with college-level examinations. It consists of the total number of AP, IB, and AICE tests given in 2010, divided by the number of graduating seniors in order to normalize by school size. AP exams taken by students who also took an IB exam in the same subject area were subtracted from the total.

Average SAT and/or ACT score (10%)

Average AP/IB/AICE exam score (10%)

AP/IB/AICE courses offered per graduate (5%): This metric assesses the depth of college-level curriculum offered.  The number of courses was divided by the number of graduates in order to normalize by school size.

Our analysis excluded schools that had fewer than 10 graduates, as well as those that were newly founded and did not have a graduating senior class in 2010. All submissions were screened to ensure the data met several parameters of logic and consistency. Schools whose submissions did not meet these standards and/or appeared to have incorrect data were contacted directly for clarification. Those that did not respond with corrected data within the specified timeframe could not be considered in the ranking process.