[POLL] Newsweek Ranks Pelham as One of Top High Schools in the Country

Pelham Memorial High School was named one of the top high schools in the country in Newsweek and The Daily Beast's annual rankings.

Pelham was ranked 330 out of  the 1,000 high schools that were ranked based on their high performance.

Schools were ranked using a combination four-year high school graduation rates; college acceptances rates; the average number of high level exams, like AP, given to each student; average SAT, ACT, AP and college level test scores; and the number of AP courses given per student.

“The criteria for ranking in this survey are in sync with an overall goal of the Pelham Schools,” Dennis Lauro,  superintendent of Pelham schools, said in a statement.  “For the past several years, the Board of Education and administration have been seeking to improve the readiness of all of our students to succeed in college.  While I recognize that we have more work to do, we are making progress and will continue to do so.”

Said high school principal Jeanine Clark: “Placing in the top third of the ranked high schools shows that our concerted effort to enroll more students in Advanced Placement and college-level courses is working,” she said. “The rigors of these initiatives, and their implementation and success, are also due in large part to the efforts our faculty and the hard work of the students themselves.”

Here are some examples of some of the intitiatives Clark said were undertaken to achieve this goal:

• The high school introduced a two-week summer seminar program known as A.C.E.S. or Academics for Curriculum-based Excellence Seminar.  The program is for students not meeting the criteria for honors level or advanced placement level courses but motivated to try.  A.C.E.S.  focuses on higher order thinking, writing, listening and reading skills required for advanced courses.  If a student successfully completes a seminar and the required assignment then he or she can move into an honor or AP course.  Data confirms the success of this program.

• Using a free web-based tool, the high school administration now identifies students not enrolled in AP courses but showing the potential to succeed in specific courses based on their performance on the PSATs.   “While many students select challenging courses on their own, others do not.  We meet personally with these students.  We are careful not to pressure them but merely present them with the data.  Many are honored by the suggestion,” Clark said.

• Bridge Academy was begun to provide an alternative program for students not succeeding in the traditional classroom. It has been highly successful in increasing both the graduation rate of these students and the percentage enrolling in college.

More examples can be found here.

What do you think of the high school’s accomplishments? Let us know in the poll below or the comments sections.