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EDUCATION AHS recognized by U.S. News Ashland High School ranked 22nd best in Oregon Comment By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Follow @@Joe_Zavala99 DailyTidings.com By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Follow @@Joe_Zavala99 Posted Apr. 21, 2016 at 6:34 PM By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Follow @@Joe_Zavala99 Posted Apr. 21, 2016 at 6:34 PM » Social News It’s practically become an annual tradition: U.S. News & World Report ranks almost every high school in the country based on several criteria and Ashland High School is recognized as one of Oregon’s best. It happened again Monday, as the multi-platform publisher of news and information released its 2016 Best High Schools rankings and Ashland High came in 22nd out of 326 public and charter schools in Oregon. That earned AHS its seventh silver medal, making it one of 35 schools in the state to earn a gold or silver medal. Ashland High, which was ranked 19th in the state last year, was the highest-ranked school south of Eugene and one of only two schools in that region to crack the top 30 — Phoenix High was ranked 30th. “I am very excited about it,” Ashland High Principal Erika Bare said. “I think essentially it means that we’re continuing to maintain the academic excellence that we’ve had here. And especially because it takes a lot of different things into account when they’re calculating that and it’s not just test scores. It’s how do our struggling populations do in our higher level AP classes.” International School of Beaverton was Oregon’s top-ranked school by U.S. News and one of the state’s three gold medal winners, along with No. 2-ranked Corbett Charter School and No. 3-ranked School of Science and Technology of Beaverton. U. S. News partnered with RTI International, a global nonprofit social science research firm, to review 28,561 public high schools in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. According to the U.S. News website the rankings methodology was based on a few key principles: “That a great high school must serve all of its students well, not just those who are college bound, and that it must be able to produce measurable academic outcomes to show it is successfully educating its student body across a range of performance indicators.” U.S. News and RTI International employed a four-step process to rank the schools, which were required to pass each in order to be eligible. The first step looked at how each school’s students performed on proficiency tests compared with the rest of the state, factoring in the percentage of economically disadvantaged students. The second step analyzed whether each school’s disadvantaged students — “black, Hispanic and low-income” — were outperforming disadvantaged students throughout the state. The third step, added to the rankings this year, considers each school’s graduation rate — high schools were only allowed to pass step three if their rounded graduation rate was 68 percent or greater. The fourth step used advanced placement or international baccalaureate test data to evaluate each school’s college-readiness performance. Ashland High, which was ranked No. 1,951 nationally, performed well across the board. With its total enrollment listed at 994 students, including 20 percent minority and 36 percent economically disadvantaged, AHS boasts an 86 percent graduation rate and scored a 112.8 on the state test performance index, which measures overall student performance on state exams. AHS scored a 28.3 on the college readiness index, which is based on exam participation rates and percentages of students passing at least one exam. The college readiness index is also used to determine whether schools are awarded a gold, silver or bronze medal. “(That’s) a really important marker for us,” Bare said, “because that’s really saying, OK, not only did they do well while they’re here they’re also going to do well in their next stop and that’s … always what we’re aiming for. We want students to leave here ready to tackle whatever is coming next.” Ninety-nine percent of Ashland High students met (56 percent) or exceeded (43 percent) requirements in the reading proficiency test and 88 percent of AHS students did the same (60 percent met, 28 percent exceeded) on the math proficiency test. Eighty-seven percent of Ashland High’s disadvantaged students were proficient on state exams, compared to 94.6 percent of non-disadvantaged students. Ashland High’s disadvantaged students performed 19 percent better than their counterparts statewide, U.S. News reported. In terms of advanced placement classes, Ashland High has a 32 percent participation rate and an 85 percent passing rate. “It’s just a testimony to all the hard work that our teachers and students have done to maintain the rigor,” Bare said. “A lot of it is based on the number of rigorous offerings that students chose to take and we have students who chose really difficult classes and are very successful with those, so it’s exciting. “We have a really supportive community that values education. We have parents and families that encourage their students to push themselves and we have teachers who see potential in kids that maybe don’t think the higher level classes are for them. And we’re proud of that.” U.S. News also ranked colleges and universities by region, and Southern Oregon University came in tied for 73rd in the west and tied for 23rd in the “top public schools” in the west. According to U.S. News, SOU boasts a 21-to-1 student-to-faculty ratio, a 41 percent six-year graduation rate and 70 percent average freshmen retention rate. Joe Zavala is a reporter for the Ashland Daily Tidings. Reach him at 541-821-0829 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @Joe_Zavala99. By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Follow @@Joe_Zavala99 DailyTidings.com By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Follow @@Joe_Zavala99 Posted Apr. 21, 2016 at 6:34 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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