Huntington High School Ranked
in Top 3% Nationally
A new set of rankings compiled by The Washington Post newspaper puts Huntington High School in the top three percent of all public high schools in the United States and among the best in the state.
Huntington is ranked 76th in the state out of more than 1,000 high schools and 731st in the country out of about 27,000 high schools. Huntington's Challenge Index was 2.104, placing it in the school in the top tier in the country. The school also has an "Equity and Excellence" rate of 34.40 percent, more than double the national average.
"This is wonderful news for our school and for the district," Huntington Principal Dr. Carmela Leonardi said. "It is rewarding to see that once you view the performance of our high school under a broader national prospective, our ranking climbs to that of the top performing public schools."
The Washington Post's Challenge Index dates to 1998 when reporter Jay Matthew's began ranking Washington, DC area high schools based on how well they prepared students for college. This year he expanded the ranking index to every public school (with limited exceptions) in America.
"We take the total number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and Advanced International Certificate of Education tests given at a school each year and divide by the number of seniors who graduated in May or June," Mr. Matthew's explained in an online overview of the ranking. "I call this formula the Challenge Index. With a few exceptions, public schools that achieved a ratio of at least 1.000, meaning they had as many tests in 2010 as they had graduates, were put on the national list."
Huntington High School routinely sends graduates to the top colleges and universities in the country, including Ivy League and similarly highly regarded institutions. The school's Challenge Index of 2.104 far exceeded that of the average high school.
"We are fortunate to serve a student population that is high achieving and very competitive," Dr. Leonardi said. "We are also very grateful to all our teachers for the relentless attention they place on academic rigor and on the development of students' talents and strengths. As administrators in the district we are honored to support teachers' efforts and to facilitate the academic development of all our students."
"I think 1.000 is a modest standard," Mr. Matthew's wrote. "A school can reach that level if only half of its students take one AP, IB or AICE test in their junior year and one in their senior year. But this year only seven percent of the approximately 27,000 U.S. public high schools managed to reach that standard and be placed on our list."
The Washington Post said its Challenge Index "is designed to identify schools that have done the best job in persuading average students to take college-level courses and tests. While not a measure of the overall quality of the school, the rating can reveal the level of a high school's commitment to preparing average students for college."
Huntington's average SAT score in 2010 was 1,560 according to The Washington Post. "Our students continue to welcome the challenge Advanced Placement courses and tests provide," Huntington Superintendent John J. Finello said. "Our seniors always fare well during the college application process because admissions officials value a Huntington degree."
The Washington Post rankings are being talked about around Huntington as students, parents and teachers learn about them. The rankings and Challenge Index results are sure to ignite a feeling of pride in Huntington High School.
"On the list we also give readers a sense of how well each school's students are doing on the tests by posting the "Equity and Excellence" rate, which is the percentage of all graduating seniors, including those who never took an AP course, who had at least one score of 3 or above on at least one AP test sometime in high school," according to The Washington Post. "The non-profit College Board, which oversees the AP program, invented this metric. It found that the average Equity and Excellence rate in 2010 was 16.9 percent."
At 34.40 percent, Huntington's "E&E" rate towers over the national average. "Our hats go off to all the students and faculty members who made this wonderful achievement possible," Mr. Finello said.