GCS Special Friday Notes from the Superintendent

May 23 , 2006

GCS High Schools, Again, Ranked Among Nations Top of the Class

This week, Newsweek released its annual ranking of America’s Top of The Class High Schools.  The ranking was created by Washington Post writer Jay Mathews.  Each school is given a ’Challenge Index’ score, which is determined by dividing the number of Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB) or Cambridge tests exams taken in a school by the number of students in each school’s graduating class.  There are more than 25,000 high schools in the United States. The Challenge Index ranks the top 5 percent.

The index reflects how well a school provides challenging courses to all students.  Research indicates that students who take but do not pass the AP and IB tests are better prepared for college than students who never took academically rigorous courses. 

The list includes 13 of 14 Guilford County Schools.  Western Guilford High topped all GCS schools, moving from a previous year’s ranking of 212 to number 80 nationally this year; and for the third consecutive year, Grimsley High was ranked among the top 100.   

 The 2006 ranking of each GCS high school is as follows (Smith High did not make the list.):

The number of AP exams taken by GCS students has increased from 2,864 in 2000 to an all-time district high of 8,133 in 2006. Although the Newsweek Challenge Index only reviewed the efforts of our traditional high schools, the following chart provides a school-by-school breakdown of AP efforts in all GCS high schools.

While we realize that the Challenge Index does not measure the overall quality of a high school, we are very pleased with the progress made in recent years to increase academic rigor in our schools.   We live in a global economy and our students must be better prepared to compete with students from around the world.   We believe that AP and IB courses are not for the elite—they are for the prepared.  We will continue to work very aggressively with all of our schools to ensure that more students have the opportunity to successfully complete academically rigorous courses.

Please join me in congratulating our high schools for a job well done. You may call me at 370-8992, should you have questions or click here to view the national rankings and to read the corresponding articles.