East makes Newsweek’s top high schools list

This year, East has ranked 885 out of 1623 schools in Newsweek’s Americas Best High School list, and ranked fifth out of Kansas high schools. This also means East has ranked 885 out of approximately 27,000 public high schools in the US, which places East within the top three percent of all US high schools.

Newsweek ranks high schools based on a number derived from the total number of AP and IB tests taken, divided by the number of graduating seniors. In the 2008-2009 school year, East students took 751 AP and IB tests, divided by the 433 graduating seniors gave East an index of 1.73. This year, East’s index number was slightly lower at 1.71.

Since the 2008-2009 school year, students that have usually not taken the AP tests for their courses have begun taking the tests to receive both the AP credit and skip the class final. As more students have begun taking the tests, East’s index number has risen over the past few years.

The list does not include magnet schools and schools who average above 1,975 on the SAT, or schools who average above 29 on the ACT. Newsweek finds schools like these only allow their top students to take college prep courses, keeping their scores artificially high and corrupting the rankings.

Other Kansas City schools that made the list include Blue Valley North and Blue Valley Northwest. Both ranked higher than East. The highest ranked school in Kansas was the Sumner Academy of Arts and Science, which ranked 246` overall.