ShawneeDispatch.com

NEWSWEEK selected Shawnee Mission Northwest High School and two other Shawnee Mission high schools for its annual America’s Best High Schools list.

The magazine ranked Shawnee Mission Northwest 492 out of 500. The school was one of five Kansas high schools to make the grade. Shawnee Mission East (326) and Shawnee Mission South (426) also made the list.

NEWSWEEK said it has been ranking the top country’s public high schools for more than a decade, using a panel of experts in an attempt to measure schools’ successes in turning out college-ready students.

To compile its list, NEWSWEEK said it contacted more than 10,000 public high schools. Schools were required to complete a survey requesting data from the 2009-10 school year. The magazine assessed more than 1,100 schools.

The panel ranked respondents based on the following self-reported statistics:


• Four-year, on-time graduation rate (with a weight of 25 percent)

• Percent of 2010 graduates who enrolled immediately in college (25 percent)

• Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and/or Cambridge Advanced Certificate of Education tests per graduate (25 percent)

• Average SAT and/or ACT score (10 percent)

• Average AP/IB/AICE exam score (10 percent)

• AP/IB/AICE courses offered per graduate — or, the depth of college-level curriculum offered (5 percent)

U.S. News & World Report also releases an annual Best High Schools list, albeit via a different methodology. U.S. News & World Report’s methodology is developed by a K-12 education data research business run by Standard & Poor’s.

The magazine analyzed 21,786 public high schools for its 2010 report and used a three-step process to determine the best high schools: Test performance, whether the school’s least-advantaged students were performing better than average for similar students in their states. AP and IP test data was then used to determine college readiness.

No Shawnee Mission high schools were listed in the latest rankings.

Shawnee Mission East, Shawnee Mission South and Shawnee Mission West were ranked in The Washington Post’s Challenge Index — which includes more than 1,900 public high schools — released last month. The Post has ranked Washington-area high schools since 1998. This year marks the first year it has ranked schools nationwide, dividing the number of AP, IB or other college-level tests a school gave in 2010 by the number of graduating seniors.

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