Honors for CB East and West

From the BCCT.

CB East and West ranked among top schools by U.S. News

By MANASEE WAGH
Bucks County Courier Times

Central Bucks East High School and Central Bucks West High School are among the best high schools in America.

U.S. News & World Report and School Evaluation Services placed them in the top 604 out of more than 21,000 public high schools recognized in 48 states, based on their students' college readiness.

“We are incredibly proud of our student body, our staff and our surrounding community. An achievement of this nature is the result of a caring school community, and we're excited by the opportunities our school creates for its students,” said Abe Lucabaugh, the principal at Central Bucks East.

CB West and CB East serve about 3,000 Doylestown-area students in grades 10 through 12.

School Evaluation Services, a K-12 education data research business run by Standard & Poor's, only assigned individual rankings to the top 100 Gold Medal schools.

No other area school was ranked on the America's Best High Schools list. However, not all high schools provided sufficient data to be rated for the list, according to School Evaluation Services.

In Pennsylvania, two schools won a Top 100 distinction. Masterman Julia R Secondary School in Philadelphia is No. 53 and Conestoga Senior High School in Chester County is No. 79.

Thomas Jefferson High School in Alexandria, Va., is No. 1 in the country for the second year in a row.

School Evaluation Services placed participating schools at gold, silver or bronze levels or honorable mention, depending on how well they achieved the following criteria:

* Achievement levels for all students in reading and math core subjects on state accountability tests.

* Ability to achieve proficiency rates on state tests for the school's least advantaged student groups.

* Providing students with a challenging college-ready curriculum, measured through a college readiness index derived from participation and performance on AP tests.

The ranking system by School Evaluation Services is the only one that considers the performance of students at every level within a school, according to the organization.

CB East and CB West were placed in the silver medal level.

The top 100 high schools include 18 charter schools and 16 magnet schools. Student populations in the top schools vary greatly, ranging from 125 in Limestone, Maine, to 4,296 in Brooklyn, N.Y.