HENRICO COUNTY, Va. — Four Henrico County high schools ranked in the top 50 best high schools in Virginia, as ranked by U.S. News & World Report. Virginia’s Top 50 included Deep Run High School (#17), Mills Godwin High School (#28), Douglas Freeman High School (#33) and Henrico High School (#44). With four ranked high schools, Hernico was second only to Fairfax County in terms of Virginia schools that made the list.
“This recognition is the direct result of the outstanding work done by our faculty, our hard-working students, the strong partnership we have with our parents and our community and the support of the HCPS School Board and central office staff,” Deep Run principal Lenny Pritchard said in a statement.
The list also included Richmond Community High School (#8) and Open High School (#24) in Richmond, Cosby High School (#25) and Midlothian High School (#34) in Chesterfield and Atlee High School (#32) and Hanover High School (#35) in Hanover.
The magazine analyzed 2012-13 data for more than 29,000 public high schools in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. It named 2,527 – 12.8 percent – as gold or silver medal winners. Only a state’s gold and silver medalists are ranked. The magazine ranked 52 schools in Virginia.
The rankings were based not just on how top students performed, but whether schools’ least-advantaged groups were exceeding statistical expectations. The evaluation used three steps:
First, the methodology used reading and math scores on state tests to see if a school’s students were doing better than statistically expected for their state. Researchers looked at scores of the entire student body and then factored in the percentage of economically disadvantaged students – who tend to score lower – exceeding statistical expectations.
For schools passing the first step, the second hurdle used reading and math scores to assess whether the school’s disadvantaged students – black, Hispanic and low-income – were outperforming other disadvantaged students in the state.
Schools that made it through the first two steps were eligible to be judged nationally on college readiness using Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate test data. This step attempts to measure which schools produced the best college-level achievement for the highest percentages of their students.
