EGHS Again Named a Top 500 Public High School in USA by Newsweek

EAST GREENWICH, RI—East Greenwich High School is the top high school in Rhode Island, according to Newsweek's 2016 ranking of the top 500 schools in America.

This year, the school landed at No. 259 in the rankings, down the list a bit from last year's No. 186 showing but no less impressive as there are nearly 25,000 public high schools in the United States and EGHS is the lone Rhode Island school to make the cut this year.

Superintendent Victor Mercurio said in an e-mail message: "Being recognized for achievement with such distinguished institutions across the country is certainly a source of pride and satisfaction for everyone in the community.

"We are honored to be listed, and it serves as a continued reminder that every community member participates and contributes to the success of our high school students," he said.

Newsweek compiled the rankings with analytics firm Westat using several metrics, including graduation rate, college enrollment rate, SAT and ACT scores, AP and IB scores and participation, teacher-student ratio and dropout rates.

View the full results here.

Newsweek looked at six measurements and weighted them to come up with a “college readiness index.” The rankings are meant to show how well high schools do at preparing students for college.

Those measurements and their weight are:

• Holding power: 10 percent
• Ratio of counselor/full-time equivalent to student enrollment: 10 percent
• Weighted SAT/ACT: 17.5 percent
• Weighted AP/IB/dual enrollment composite: 17.5 percent
• Graduation rate: 20 percent
• College enrollment rate: 25 percent

In all, 6,477 of the nation’s 15,819 public high schools met the criteria to be considered in Newsweek’s rankings.

Newsweek used school performance data from the National Center for Education Statistics to narrow down the list of schools.

Of those 6,477 schools, 4,760 were considered for the overall rankings, while 4,452 made the cut for another list of schools that were “beating the odds.” (Many schools made both lists.)

For the “beating the odds” rankings, a school’s college readiness scores were adjusted for how they compared against other schools that had similar percentages of students eligible for free or reduced lunch.

Last year, Jim Impoco, editor in chief of Newsweek, said in an email that “We place emphasis on criteria like college enrollment and graduation rate since we know that those are some of the biggest indicators of whether students are prepared for college.”

Last year also marked the disappearance of Barrington High School from the list.

East Greenwich got a "college readiness" score of 77.8 this year, down slightly from last year's 81.8 percent. The graduation rate also dipped somewhat to 96.6 percent, down from 98.9 percent. More than ninety-three percent of students are college bound and the poverty rate is a low 6.4 percent.