The Bromfield School ranks in the top 100 public high schools nationwide, out of 21,000 schools rated by U.S. News & World Report. According to a report released this week, Bromfield is 87th on the magazine’s list of Gold Medal schools for 2010. The only other Massachusetts school to make the top 100 is Boston Latin, an exam school, which ranks 38th on the Gold Medal list.
In announcing the award, Superintendent Thomas Jefferson wrote to teachers and staff in the Harvard school system, “I offer my sincere congratulations and appreciation to all of you, from preschool through grade 12 and across all departments. Your professionalism, dedication, and high standards are at the core of our success and this honor.”
He later added, “The award came as a surprise. It’s not something you can apply for. They [US News] collect the data independently.”
Bromfield made the Silver Medal category on the 2008 list, which was published in December 2007. Bromfield did not appear in the top-ranked schools for 2009, published a year ago.
U.S. News bases its rankings on student performance on state accountability tests such as the MCAS and on students’ preparation for college, as measured by “participation in and performance on Advanced Placement (AP) exams.”
For college readiness, Bromfield scored 65.6, with 68.8 percent of its 12th-graders having taken at least one AP exam, of whom 93.9 percent received a passing score of 3 or better. When Bromfield ranked as a Silver Medal school two years ago, its college readiness score was 48.3.
Jefferson said, “We have a great pool of kids who work really hard. It’s the result of a lot of community support. This is a district accomplishment. You can’t do this work in high school without a tremendous foundation in elementary school.”
For performance on state exams, the magazine factors in socioeconomic data by requiring that schools “exceed statistical expectations given the school’s relative level of student poverty.” A high ranking also requires a school’s test scores to exceed state averages for students in “least advantaged” groups such as racial or ethnic minorities or low-income families.
Schools move in and out of the rankings from year to year, most often because of a change in performance on the state tests. A school that scores above 20 on the college readiness measure, but does not meet the statistical requirements on state exams, will receive an Honorable Mention ranking.
For the full list of top 100 schools and additional information on rankings and methodology, see www.usnews.com.
