U.S. News High School Rankings: How Did Rockville Rank?
VERNON, CT — Rockville High School has been declared No. 126 in Connecticut in the latest rankings of public high schools by U.S. News and World Report.
RHS was also ranked No. 6,959 nationally.
The annual rankings released by U.S. News are meant to evaluate schools based on graduation rates, academic performance and more.
The 2022 rankings of best high schools are also intended to show how well the nation's public schools serve all students — regardless of achievement level — by teaching them basic skills and preparing them for college-level work, according to a news release from U.S. News.
Vernon Superintendent of Schools Joseph Macary wasn't overjoyed at the 2022 rankings, saying because of many restrictions imposed on schools during the coronavirus pandemic, the formula was skewed toward socio-economic factors that dragged the wealthier communities in the state to the top.
He cited two examples that were not factored in.
One was the RHS Creative writing program, which has out-performed every other school in Connecticut with 127 state-level medals and four national medals.
"Plus, I hosted a tour of our facilities for school representatives from another town today," Macary said Tuesday morning. "These officials were here to learn how we were doing things. If another school district puts stock in what you are doing ... that says a lot."
Darien High School is the top public school in Connecticut, according to the U.S. News rankings. This year's list of best high schools evaluated more than 17,800 schools nationwide, including 165 in Connecticut. Darien is ranked No. 191 nationally.
Here's a link to Patch's statewide story that lets readers see the complete results for Connecticut.
Here are the top 10 schools in this year's national Best High Schools ranking:
Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology - Alexandria, Virginia
Academic Magnet High School - North Charleston, South Carolina
Signature School - Evansville, Indiana
School for Advanced Studies - Miami, Florida
Payton College Preparatory High School - Chicago, Illinois
The Davidson Academy of Nevada - Reno, Nevada
Central Magnet School - Murfreesboro, Tennessee
The School for the Talented and Gifted - Dallas, Texas
Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science and Technology - Lawrenceville, Georgia
Julia R. Masterman Secondary School - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
This year's schools were ranked on six measures: college readiness, college curriculum breadth, state assessment performance, state assessment proficiency, reading and math proficiency, reading and math performance, underserved student performance and graduation rates.
The data used in this year's ranking is from the 2019-20 academic school year. U.S. News adjusted its calculation of these measures to account for the impact COVID-19 had on schools in the 2019-20 school year.
Since most states closed schools for in-person instruction starting in March 2020 — typically just before most states conduct assessments — the U.S. Department of Education granted waivers allowing all states to forgo state testing for the 2019-20 school year.
To account for this, U.S. News relied on past assessment data from thethree prior ranking years. Researchers also incorporated state science assessment data from the 2018-19 school year.
Read more about the Best High Schools methodology.
This article originally appeared on the Vernon Patch
