Princeton High School Fails to Rank Among Nation's 'Best High Schools'

US News & World Report has released its annual list of the nation's best high schools, and Princeton High School went from a ranking of 196th in the nation and 10th in New Jersey to not being ranked at all. 

“The board is always happy when our schools rank high in state and national lists and we’re disappointed when we don’t appear," Board of Education President Tim Quinn wrote in a statement this week. "That said, the board recognizes the reality of these ratings: that razor-thin margins on the scores of relatively small groups of our students on a single standardized test can mean the difference between a high ranking and not appearing on a list."

U.S. News evaluated data on nearly 22,000 public high schools from 49 states and the District of Columbia, but excluded Nebraska due to lack of data.

Schools were evaluated using a three-step process: student performance on standardized tests, schools that performed better than the state average for disadvantaged students (black, Hispanic and low-income) and schools that performed best in providing students with access to challenging college-level coursework.

The report does not distinguish between open enrollment, selective enrollment and lottery-based schools in determining rankings. Only two of this year's top high schools in New Jersey are traditional open-enrollment high schools.

A press release from Princeton Public Schools points out that the US News and World Report ranking comes at a time when almost every measure of student achievement, including some not used by the publication, improved from the previous year.

Instead, the press release notes, in one category used by US News and World Report, "a small demographic group of students did not see an increase in test scores commensurate with the statewide average increase seen among similar students."

Board members, some of whom have children in the district, say there is learning that takes place in many ways "that aren't necessarily measured by the data points that go into these rankings." 

"This doesn’t mean we are self-satisfied and that our district is resting on its laurels; it does mean that the board is confident that each student is receiving meaningful instruction in all of our schools," the statement read. 

Officials note that proficiency rates, as determined by the state assessment, is on the rise- from 96.4 percent in Language Arts in 2009-10 to 97.8 percent two years later, in 2011-12. The rise was even more dramatic in math, with a nearly six-point increase in proficiency rates, up from 90.2 percent in 2009-10 to 96 percent last year, in 2011-12.

In fact, if US News and World Reports' rankings were limited solely to standardized test performance, PHS would rank eighth in the state and 162nd nationwide, district officials say.

The 2013 report places Princeton High School’s college readiness index at 64.5 - significantly higher than the minimum score of 45.75 that US News & World Report has set for the Gold Medal status.