Bernards H.S. Makes NJ Monthly's 'Top Public High Schools' List

Out of 339 schools rated for New Jersey Monthly’s “Top Public High Schools” list, Bernards High School comes in at number 15.

It’s one of two Somerset County schools that made the list of top 20 ranked public high schools in the state, standing just two spots below Ridge High school.

New Jersey Monthly publishes the list every year based on data compiled by Leflein Associates, an independent research company in Ringwood, New Jersey, according to a press release from the magazine.

This years rankings are based off data from the 2012-2013 school year.

Certain factors are taken into account when configuring the list such as student to teach ratio, standardized test score rankings, and graduation rates.

Two new aspects were also looked at for this years rankings. The results took into account those students who scored a 1,550 or higher on their SAT’s as well as “post-secondary enrollment” percentages- the amount of students who enrolled in a college within 16 months of graduating high school.

“We specifically added these new data points to our scoring system to help identify the high schools that are doing the best job in preparing their students for success at the college level,” says New Jersey Monthly editor Ken Schlager said in the release.

The list of top 100 public high schools in New Jersey will appear in the magazines September issue while the full list of of all 339 schools rated will be available on New Jersey Monthly’swebsite on September 2.