Cheney High School has again received a bronze ranking on U.S. News and World Reports’ “2015 Best High Schools.”
According to a May 12 news release, the rankings are produced in conjunction with RTI International, a global nonprofit social science research firm, and is based on a complex methodology formula. That formula is “based on three aspects of school performance: (1) the performance of all students on state assessments in reading and mathematics; (2) the performance of disadvantaged student subgroups — defined as Black/African-American students, Hispanic/Latino students, and students who are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch or who are economically disadvantaged as determined by the state — on these assessments; (3) and the degree to which high schools prepare students for college by offering a college-level curriculum.
The national report features detailed information from more than 21,150 public schools, with many schools given a “College Readiness Index” score. The top 6,150-plus of these received either a gold, silver or bronze medal ranking, and in the case of gold and silver, a national numeric ranking.
“This award is a testament to our teachers’ hard work and efforts in creating a climate of high achievement whereby our vision of ‘safety, hope, and praise’ is set in action every day,” Ray Picicci, CHS assistant principal curriculum/instruction/assessment and school district assessment coordinator 9-12, said.
According to U.S. News and World Reports methodology, a three-step process was used to generate the “Best High Schools” rankings. The first step was to identify high schools that performed better than expected on state accountability assessments, given their population of economically disadvantaged students, while the second step was to identify high schools whose disadvantaged students performed better than the state average for disadvantaged students.
The third step was to identify high schools that performed best in providing students with access to challenging college-level coursework. Schools receiving a bronze medal passed both steps one and two and either had a college readiness index below the median or did not have an index at all, with silver and gold level schools at or above the median.
Cheney High received an overall college readiness index of 18.7. Robert Morse, U.S. News and World Reports chief data strategist, said the scoring is weighted more towards the percentage of students passing than the percentage taking the test.
“The way U.S. News is saying it is that passing is more important than taking,” Morse said.
Cheney High had a 24 percent participation rate for students taking the AP tests, with 70 percent of students passing. Morse said Cheney’s index was just below the median of college readiness in the bronze level, with an index of 18.4 needed to achieve silver medal status.
Cheney rated a 3.5 score in terms of reading proficiency, which is determined by student results on the school’s “High School Proficiency Exam” or “End-of-Course Assessments” tests. According to the report, 66 percent of students tested at the advanced level with 26 percent testing at the proficient level.
With regards to mathematics proficiency, also using the same test results, Cheney rated a 2.9, with 31 percent achieving advanced level and 41 percent proficient level.
“If every student had scored at advanced, it would be a 4.0,” Morse said of both reading and math.
In overall student performance, the first step in reaching the bronze level, Cheney achieved a 108.7, 16.4 points above the expected state testing expectations. With 75 percent of disadvantaged students, the second step, the high school also exceeded state testing expectations among disadvantaged students.
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].
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