Biotechnology High School In Freehold 4th-Best In NJ: US News

FREEHOLD, NJ — Biotechnology High School in Freehold ranked among the top 100 high schools in the country, according to U.S. News & World Report's 2018 rankings of best high schools in the country.

Biotechnology High School, one of the seven full-time career academies offered by the Monmouth County Vocational School District, received a gold medal from U.S. News as it identified schools that best serve all students and assessed how prepared students are for college-level work. It was the No. 4 high school in the New Jersey rankings and came in 66th overall on the U.S. News list.

"Top-ranked schools succeed in three main areas: exceeding expectations on state proficiency tests, offering challenging coursework and graduating their students," Anita Narayan, managing editor of Education at U.S. News, said in a press release.

The report looked at more than 20,500 high schools across the country, and of those, the top 5,948 public high schools are awarded with gold, silver and bronze medals, indicating their level of college readiness.

Biotechnology High School has about 320 students and is an International Baccalaureate World School under the governance of the Monmouth County Vocational School District. The curriculum emphasizes laboratory science, research, mathematics, and technology and students gain admission through testing process.

Biotech High is the only high school in NJ at which 100 percent of the students are International Baccalaureate diploma candidates.

In addition to Biotech High, four other Monmouth County Vocational Schools career academies had high rankings.

• High Technology High School (No. 1 in NJ; 22nd overall), Lincroft, Monmouth County Vocational School District, GOLD
• Marine Academy of Science and Technology (No. 14; 349), Highlands, Monmouth County Vocational School District, GOLD
• Academy of Allied Health and Science (No. 22; 452), Neptune, Monmouth County Vocational School District, GOLD
• Communications High School (No, 51; 1702), Wall, Monmouth County Vocational School District, SILVER

To determine the rankings, U.S. News teamed up with the social science research firm RTI International. A variety of data sources, including the Common Core of Data, College Board and the International Baccalaureate, were used.

A four-step process was used to rank all eligible schools. The first two steps were to determine whether students were performing better than statistically expected in the state and whether minority were performing at or better than the state average for minority students, which was the second step. The third step required schools to meet or surpass a certain graduation benchmark and the final step was to determine college readiness. (You can read the full methodology here.)

To see other New Jersey schools that received gold, silver or bronze ratings, click here.

Click here to see the full rankings and for more insight on the data.

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