By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Princeton High School is the sixth most challenging high school in New Jersey based on a survey by the Washington Post newspaper, the school district announced Wednesday.
The Post came to that conclusion through a formula it uses that takes the number of college-level tests given in 2012 and divides that by the number of graduates. Each school, then, is assigned a so-called “challenge index.” Student scores on the test are not part of the ranking.
Princeton finished sixth out of the 93 public and private schools in the state to qualify for the list. It was ranked 328 out of roughly 1,980 nationwide. The list excludes “elite” charter or magnet schools that tend to draw a high number of high achievers, as the survey seeks to find the schools that are best at encouraging “average students” to take higher level courses and tests.
This comes after the high school fell out of U.S. News and World Report’s top 200 schools in the nation and when the state Department of Education last month released data showing the school “about average” compared to peer schools.
”First, in our society we are too often seeking quick lists and easy comparisons,” Superintendent of Schools Judith A. Wilson said Wednesday.
”Schools and school districts are about growth and capacity building for students and employees alike. No two years and no two groups of students are the same, not to mention that tests are not the same from year to year. So, it is important that we look beyond the first glance at a list or ranking to understand what is being measured and how it is being measured.”
