East Named Top Kansas Public High School

Every year news outlet Newsweek releases a ranking of the top public high schools in the nation. Shawnee Mission East is frequently featured as one of the top high schools in the nation, but this year East was ranked stronger than ever. Placing at 326, East is the number one public high school in Kansas according to Newsweek. Other Kansas schools included Blue Valley North (340), Shawnee Mission South (426), Blue Valley High School (465) and Shawnee Mission Northwest (492).

In the past, Newsweek’s method of coming up with the rankings was by simply looking at the number of AP tests taken per graduate. The organization claims that this year, they brought on a board of experts to revamp it’s methods and provide a more accurate look at some of the top high school schools in the nation. They came up with a weighted criteria that measured graduation rate (25 percent), college matriculation rate (25 percent), AP tests taken per graduate (25 percent), average ACT/SAT scores (10 percent), average AP/IB/AICE scores (10 percent) and number of AP courses offered (5 percent).

“It is a great achievement for the students, staff, and community,” principal Dr. Karl Krawitz said. “No question it shows the commitment the school has to excellence.  When you look at the other schools ahead of us and behind us for that matter you find a lot of private schools with small teacher/student ratios, which makes our accomplishment even that more exciting.”

You can read the article and view the full list of schools here: http://www.newsweek.com/feature/2011/americas-best-high-schools.html