Here's How Cinnaminson High School Ranked Among All NJ High Schools

CINNAMINSON, NJ — The Cinnaminson High School ranked 146th of 406 public high schools in New Jersey, according to an annual survey just released by U.S. News and World Report.

The following New Jersey schools were ranked among the top 100 of all public U.S. high schools, according to the report:

• Middlesex County Academy for Science, Mathematics and Engineering Technologies, Edison. Ranked 23.
• Union County Magnet High School, Scotch Plains: Ranked 49.
• Bergen County Academies, Hackensack: Ranked 61.
• High Technology High School, Lincroft: Ranked 65.
• Dr. Ronald E McNair High School, Jersey City: Ranked 68.
• Middlesex County Academy for Allied Health, Woodbridge: Ranked 69.
• Biotechnology High School, Freehold: Ranked 80.
• Bergen County Technical High School - Teterboro, Teterboro: Ranked 93.

The 2022 ranking of best high schools is intended to show how well the nation's public schools serve all students, regardless of achievement level, by teaching them basic skills and preparing them for college-level work, according to a news release from U.S. News & World Report.

To develop the rankings, U.S. News & World Report teamed up with RTI International, a North Carolina-based nonprofit social science research firm. RTI implemented a rankings methodology meant to reflect how well high schools serve their students.

Ninety percent of the rankings incorporate performances on advanced placement and International Baccalaureate (AP and IB, respectively) exams and standardized tests, while the remaining 10 percent is the graduation rate. The rankings incorporate six categories:

• college readiness (30 percent of the rankings): the percentage of 12th graders from the class of 2020 who took at least one AP or IB exam by the end of their senior year, and the percentage of 12th graders who earned a qualifying score on at least one AP or IB exam in high school.
• college curriculum breadth (10 percent): the percentage of seniors in the class of 2020 who took a wide variety of AP and IB courses across the multiple disciplines, plus the percentage of 12th graders who earned a qualifying score on them.
• state-assessment proficiency (20 percent): measures how well students scored on state assessments that measure proficiency in reading, science and math.
• state-assessment performance (20 percent): the difference between how students performed on state assessments and what U.S. News predicted based on a school's student body.
• underserved-student performance (10 percent): how well the student population receiving subsidized school lunch and Black and Hispanic populations performed on state assessments relative to statewide performance among students not in the aforementioned subgroups.
• graduation rate: the graduation rate for the class of 2020.

Read more about U.S. News & World Report's methodology here.

But, U.S. News & World Report school rankings have their critics. James Fallows, a former U.S. News & World Report editor, even called them "meaningless" in an interview with NPR.

"The reason they started doing it back in the early 1980s under the guidance of a man named Mel Elfin, was because it was a brilliant business strategy," Fallows said. "By appealing to the human desire for rankings and knowing where you stand and where somebody else stands, they were
able to make a very strong part of their business, which is now basically the only part of their business."

U.S. News & World Report contends that the rankings help parents make better-informed decisions about their children's education.

"The goal is to provide a clear, unbiased picture," the report says, "of how well public schools serve all of their students — from the highest to lowest achieving — in preparing them to demonstrate proficiency in basic skills as well as readiness for college-level work."

This story also contains reporting by Alexis Tarrazi and Josh Bakan.

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