U.S. News Ranks Prairie Grove High 7th Best High School In State

LYNN KUTTER ENTERPRISE-LEADER Ethan Scates, left, Drew Cates and Noah Akey try to figure out who murdered Al Gebra during their Algebra 2 class at Prairie Grove High School. Looking at evidence from the crime scene, Donna Mitchell’s students used math to try to solve the mystery. Prairie Grove was named the seventh best high school in the state by U.S. World & News Report.
LYNN KUTTER ENTERPRISE-LEADER Ethan Scates, left, Drew Cates and Noah Akey try to figure out who murdered Al Gebra during their Algebra 2 class at Prairie Grove High School. Looking at evidence from the crime scene, Donna Mitchell’s students used math to try to solve the mystery. Prairie Grove was named the seventh best high school in the state by U.S. World & News Report.

Prairie Grove High School is listed as one of the top 10 high schools in the state by the latest rankings of high schools issued by U.S. News & World Report.

Prairie Grove comes in as the seventh ranked high school in Arkansas for 2017, according to the publication's annual report.

Of the top 10 in the state, seven high schools are in Northwest Arkansas. Haas Hall Academy in Fayetteville is ranked first, with Arkansas Arts Academy in Rogers, second. Rogers High is ranked fourth and Bentonville, fifth. Fayetteville comes in at eighth behind Prairie Grove and Rogers Heritage High School received the 10th ranking in the state.

Ron Bond, Prairie Grove High School principal, said the school has been ranked in the state previously by U.S. News and he said the high rankings are a validation of goals set by the district.

"As a building, several years ago we made a decision we need to and want to make Prairie Grove a more academic, rigorous school," Bond said. "We wanted the students of Prairie Grove High School, when they leave our building to be as competitive with any student walking out of any school in the state."

Prairie Grove High School is a normal, comprehensive high school, Bond said, noting that three of the public schools listed above Prairie Grove are charter or magnet schools that have a more "sorted" student population.

One of the primary differences at Prairie Grove, Bond said, is that students are making choices to take more rigorous courses.

"We have an outstanding community, outstanding teachers and outstanding kids. I'm proud of the kids and proud to see Prairie Grove's name attached to this."

U.S. News rankings highlight public schools that best serve all of their students, including disadvantaged populations, according to a news release announcing the 2017 Best High Schools. The rankings focus on student outcomes with an emphasis on graduation rates and scores on state proficiency tests.

A four-step process was used to calculate 2017 rankings based on data from the 2014-15 school year.

The first step looked at student performance on math and reading proficiency tests, compared to state averages and factoring in student poverty levels. The second step determined if economically disadvantaged students performed at or better than the state average.

The third step considered graduation rates and the fourth step looked at how well students are prepared for college, based on participation in Advanced Placement courses and passing rates on AP tests.

According to the scorecard issued by U.S. News, Prairie Grove has a 93 percent graduation rate, 41.7 percent college readiness index, 78 percent participation rate in Advanced Placement courses, 38 percent passing rate for AP exams, 20 percent proficiency in math and 53 percent proficiency in English.

Prairie Grove is ranked 1,116 in the national rankings.

According to the 2017 report, Arkansas has 224 school districts, 280 high schools, more than 11,000 full-time teachers and 142,234 students. U.S. News & World Report honors 82 Arkansas schools in its rankings.

The publication worked with North Carolina-based RTI International, a global research firm, to implement the methodology and produce 2017 high school rankings.

General News on 05/03/2017