What’s in the Rank: East has been named the sixth best public school in Kansas based on various different requirements

East was named the sixth best public high school in Kansas for the 2022-23 school year with an overall A+ rating, according to niche.com.

It was also ranked as the fifth best high school for athletes and sixth best college prep high school in Kansas out of 362 public schools by niche.com. East has already been the top-ranked school in SMSD for multiple years, according to associate principal Susan Leonard.

Blue Valley North High School placed first in the state overall, followed by Blue Valley High, Blue Valley West and Rockford Lutheran School. East ranked similarly to these schools with a 98% graduation rate compared to Blue Valley North’s 95%. But Blue Valley schools were set apart by their consistently greater diversity.

The B- in diversity given to East reflected a lack in both racial and economic diversity. Diversity is evaluated due to the effect it can have on student’s experiences at school. In comparison, Blue Valley North received an A- in diversity and Blue Valley West received a B+. These stats are mainly due to the schools’ locations and who lives in each district.

Along with diversity, Niche ranks each school based on academics, clubs, teachers, activities, diversity, college prep, sports, food and resources. They also consider test grades, reviews given by parents and graduation rate when determining the best high schools.

Each of these categories is graded with a letter and despite a few B-’s in diversity and food, East scored mainly A’s. 

One of the large determining factors for the best public school is ACT, SAT and state testing averages, as well as availability of AP and IB courses and how many students enroll in these courses. Niche reports that East’s average ACT and SAT scores were 28 and 1310, respectively.

“We want our grade data to reflect more learning,” Principal Jason Peres said. “We want our ACT score to constantly improve. We want to decrease D’s and F’s and increase A’s, B’s and C’s”.

Despite East’s consistently above average standardized test scores, Dr. Leonard disagrees with the use of test scores to judge schools as a whole.

“If it were up to me, we would judge schools by how successful students were in attaining their goals post-high school,” Leonard said.

Another deciding factor in these rankings are reviews and comments left by teachers, students and staff members on each school’s website. 286 of the 387 East reviews were four stars or higher.

Many of the reviews praise East for its large variety of classes, involved staff and especially the support offered in academic, athletic and emotional areas.

“I love how many choices East has for classes,” sophomore Helen Jones said. “You can really start to think about what you want to do with college and your future career with so many options.”

East has recently been using Panorama — the survey taken by students who opt-in during seminar about their school experience — for feedback. According to Leonard, students consistently reported negative feelings like being excluded. 

Thursday morning teacher meetings are often used to discuss the student body’s experiences at school instead of how to achieve perfect test scores because experiences and mental health can often affect test scores as much as a perfect curriculum. “Safe Space” stickers have been placed in some classrooms to promote inclusion. Areas in the new renovations are being allotted to become a “comfortable space” for students to work on improving any low grades, according to Leonard.

“I think Shawnee Mission East could and should be the number one school in the state,” Leonard said. “I think we’ve got the best kids, I think we’ve got great resources. There are certainly challenges with every large public high school, but they’re just excuses.”