US News High School Rankings: How Did William Tennent Fare?

WARMINSTER, PA — William Tennent High School finished in the middle of the pack in U.S. News & World Report's comprehensive ranking of the nation's high schools. The report, issued Tuesday, ranks more than 17,000 schools, an increase from 2,700 last year.

Of those 17,000, Neshaminy is No. 7,421. The local high school also is the 303rd best in all of Pennsylvania, the study says. There are more than 950 public high schools in Pennsylvania and U.S. News ranked 689 of them.

The five-county Philadelphia area took home the top nine spots on the state list, and 11 of the top 13. New Hope-Solebury is the top ranked Bucks County school at No. 8, coming in ahead of Central Bucks High School-East (No. 12), Central Bucks High School-West (No. 24) and Central Bucks High School-South (No. 45).

Tennent High scored a 56.97 out of 100 overall (see the school's profile at U.S. News here).
Its reading proficiency was scored at 74 percent, and mathematics proficiency at 63 percent, while 26 percent of students took at least one AP Exam.

More broadly, the rankings showed that Pennsylvania holds its own on the national scale. The state placed two schools in the top 100 nationwide, and 31 in the top 1,000. Overall, the state's high schools graduate 95.2 percent of students.

Anita Narayan, managing editor of education at U.S. News, said the aim of the rankings is to give families more information about the schools in their district.

"By evaluating more schools than ever before, the new edition expands that focus so all communities can see which schools in their area are successfully serving their students — including historically underserved populations," Narayan said in a news release.

The factors considered in compiling the list include college readiness, reading and math proficiency, reading and math performance, underserved student performance, college curriculum breadth and graduation rates.

College readiness measures participation and performance on advanced placement and international baccalaureate exams.

The data also take into account school enrollment, student diversity, participation in free and reduced-price meal programs, graduation rates and the results of state assessment tests. U.S. News worked with the global research firm RTI International to rank the schools.

"We enhanced the methodology to provide an even more comprehensive ranking that is easier to understand and, therefore, more useful to parents and educators," Robert Morse, chief data strategist at U.S. News, said in a news release. "Now, each school's score correlates to its national percentile — a school with a score of 70 is in the 70th percentile and ranks higher than 70 percent of schools. Going forward, this methodology will allow for intuitive comparisons of a school's performance year after year."

The top 10 schools are in 10 different states, demonstrating that a high-quality education can be found across the country, the report said. Those schools are:

1. Academic Magnet High School, South Carolina
2. Maine School of Science and Mathematics
3. BASIS Scottsdale, Arizona
4. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Virginia
5. Central Magnet School, Tennessee
6. Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science and Technology, Georgia
7. Haas Hall Academy, Arkansas
8. International Academy of Macomb, Michigan
9. Payton College Preparatory High School, Illinois
10. Signature School, Indiana

In the state-by-state performance, based on the number of high schools in the top 25 percent of national rankings, Massachusetts was the leader. This year, nearly half — 48.8 percent — of the commonwealth's high schools were ranked in the top 25 percent of high schools. Maryland was second with 43.7 percent, followed by California, with 40 percent, and Connecticut, with 39.8 percent in the top 25 percent of schools ranked nationally.

Overall, only seven states had more than a third of their schools in the top 25 percent, and 20 states had 25 percent or more of their schools in the top 25 percent.

On the other end of the spectrum, 22 states had fewer than 20 percent of their high schools in the top 25 percent, and seven had fewer than 10 percent of schools in the top tier. South Dakota's schools finished at the bottom of the list since it was the only state that didn't give U.S. News permission to use advanced placement data in the rankings. Even so, 1.9 percent of South Dakota's schools finished in the top 25 percent of rankings.

The full list is available exclusively on usnews.com.