Sachem High School East and Sachem High School North were ranked in the top five percent of the best 2,000 public high schools in America by Newsweek this week.
Newsweek develops the list based on a criteria that judges how high schools best prepare students for college.
The Stats …
Sachem North
- Graduation rate: 94 percent
- AP/IB tests: 0.4
- College bound: 90 percent
- Average SAT: 1450
- Average ACT: 22
- Average AP score: 3
Sachem East
- Graduation rate: 92 percent
- AP/IB tests: 0.4
- College bound: 90 percent
- Average SAT: 1510
- Average ACT: 24
- Average AP score: 3
The following criteria is used, according to Newsweek/TheDailyBest.com:
- Four-year, on-time graduation rate (25 percent): Based on the standards set forth by the National Governors Association, this is calculated by dividing the number of graduates in 2012 by the number of ninth graders in 2008, plus transfers in, minus transfers out. Unlike other formulas, this does not count students who took longer than four years to complete high school.
- Percent of 2011 graduates who were accepted to college (25 percent): This metric reflects the proportion of graduates who were accepted to either a two- or four-year college for matriculation the fall after graduation.
- AP/IB/AICE tests per student (25 percent): This metric is designed to measure the degree to which each school is challenging its students with college-level examinations. It consists of the total number of AP, IB, and AICE tests given in 2012, divided by the total enrollment in order to normalize by school size. AP exams taken by students who also took an IB or AICE exam in the same subject area were subtracted from the total.
- Average SAT and/or ACT score (10 percent)
- Average AP/IB/AICE exam score (10 percent)
- Percent of students enrolled in at least one AP/IB/AICE course (5 percent):This metric assesses the number of students who were exposed to advanced curricula. The number of students enrolled in at least one class was divided by the total enrollment.
Data for each of these indicators were standardized using z-scores, in order to measure the relative performance of each school, and then weighted as indicated above to produce an overall Newsweek score for each school.