Here's How Central Regional High School Was Ranked By US News

BERKELEY, N.J. — US News & World Report's released its 2019 rankings of best high schools in the country this week. The publication ranked the state's top 350 and showed where they landed among more than 20,500 public high schools in the United States.

Central Regional High School ranked 277th in New Jersey and 8,831st nationally.

U.S. News & World Report, which released its 2019 rankings on Tuesday, is the gold standard for education rankings and is widely considered the global authority. Anita Narayan, managing editor of education at US News, said the aim of the rankings is to give families more information about the schools in their district.

The factors considered in compiling the list include college readiness; reading and math proficiency; reading and math performance; underserved student performance; college curriculum breadth; and graduation rates. College readiness measures participation and performance on advanced placement and international baccalaureate exams.

The data also take into account school enrollment, student diversity, participation in free and reduced-price meal programs, graduation rates and the results of state assessment tests. U.S. News worked with the global research firm RTI International to rank the schools.

"We enhanced the methodology to provide an even more comprehensive ranking that is easier to understand and, therefore, more useful to parents and educators," Robert Morse, chief data strategist at U.S. News, said in a news release. "Now, each school's score correlates to its national percentile — a school with a score of 70 is in the 70th percentile and ranks higher than 70 percent of schools. Going forward, this methodology will allow for intuitive comparisons of a school's performance year after year."

To see how all of New Jersey's high schools fared in the rankings, click here.

Click here to get Patch email notifications on this or other local news articles or get Patch breaking news alerts sent right to your phone with our app. Download here. Follow Berkeley Patch on Facebook. Have a news tip? Email josh.bakan@patch.com.