Lake Highlands and the rest of the RISD high schools have been ranked among the top 3% in the nation by Newsweek magazine. On their list of America’s Best High Schools for 2010, Pearce came in #255, Richardson was #288, Berkner landed at #628 and LHHS was ranked #639. More than 26,000 high schools in the U.S. were examined for the report. Dallas ISD’s Talented and Gifted High School earned the top spot again – their 4th #1 in the last five years.
The evaluation is intended to reflect how hard school staff works to challenge students with college level work, so they divide the number of Advanced Placement given by the number of graduating seniors. Newsweek defends their methodology on their FAQs page, and accounting for the large number of variables in what makes a good high school is difficult, at best. But I would argue that Lake Highlands, with its proximity to Richland College, draws a large number of students to the dual credit program, wherein students take actual college courses from actual college teachers and skip AP tests altogether. Why pay for and take an AP test when you’ve already passed a college course and secured the credit on your transcript? Inclusion of students successfully completing these college courses or requiring that these students take AP tests would be certain to improve our rank. On the sunny side, LH showed improvement – in 2009 we ranked #730, in 2008 we were #1075, and in 2007 we ranked #1044.
“We’re gratified by these rankings, because they validate our efforts to promote high expectations for all students and to challenge them to achieve at higher levels,” said RISD Superintendent Dr. Kay Waggoner. “Congratulations are in order for the students, staff and communities of these schools and the elementary and junior high schools that feed into our high schools. These annual rankings are another indicator of the overall quality of education offered to all students in RISD.”
