LAWRENCE: High school moves up in magazine’s ratings

By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
   Lawrence High School has vaulted from the 120th best high school in New Jersey in 2010 to 82 for 2012, according to New Jersey Monthly magazine’s annual ratings of public high schools — much to the delight of school district officials.
   The magazine releases its ranking of New Jersey’s 328 public high schools every two years. The latest ranking appears in the September issue, which was released this week. They were based on the results of the 2010-11 annual school report card, prepared by the New Jersey Department of Education.
   The magazine adjusted its methodology for 2012, including revisions to how it calculates high school graduation rates and dropping the ratio of students to computers because of the proliferation of personal computers among high school students.
   The new ranking was announced by Superintendent of Schools Crystal Edwards at the Lawrence Township Board of Education meeting Monday night.
   ”It’s a pretty dramatic move, from 120 to 82 (in the rankings),” said school board president Laura Waters. She suggested that part of the upward movement in rankings might be attributable to a more accurate reporting of high school graduation rates, based on new NJDOE standards.
   Lawrence High School’s graduation rate is 90.6 percent. Its senior class consists of 252 students, and the average class size is 16. There is a student/faculty ratio of 10 to 1. The average combined SAT score is 1527, and the school offers 14 Advanced Placement tests.
   Ms. Edwards said school district officials were “really excited” by the move up in the rankings. The magazine compiles “a lot of data” to determine a high school’s ranking, she said.
   ”We are extremely proud of our high school students, staff and team. We are going to support them in keeping that ranking going down, down, down until we get to No. 1,” she said.
   Lawrence High School is not the only Mercer County high school that climbed up in the rankings. Hopewell Valley Central High School is ranked 31, up from 38 in 2010. Hightstown High School moved from 180 to 161, and Ewing High School went from 245 to 212.
   But several Mercer County high schools went down in the ranking system, such as Princeton High School, which dropped from 44th best public high school in 2010 to 59 in the latest results. West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North went down from 29 to 32, and West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South dropped from 16 in 2010 to 62.