US News High School Rankings: See Freehold, Freehold Twp.

U.S. News & World Report issued its annual rankings of America's high schools, listing them among national rankings and within New Jersey.

The publication looked at data for 23,000 high schools across the nation, including graduation rates, performance on state-required standardized tests, and and how well they prepare students for college to come up with its rankings, which are considered the gold standard for education rankings and is widely considered the global authority. Anita Narayan, managing editor of education at U.S. News, said the aim of the rankings is to give families more information about the schools in their district.

The data is from the 2016-2017 school year.

Freehold Borough High School is ranked 136th in New Jersey, with 350 of more than 400 high schools being ranked. Freehold Township High School is ranked 158th in New Jersey.

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.

At Freehold Borough, ranked 3,502 nationally, the Advanced Placement participation rate is 44 percent. Mathematics proficiency is 28 percent, reading proficiency is 48 percent and the graduation rate is 94 percent. The total minority enrollment is 44 percent, and 26 percent of students are economically disadvantaged Read more about Freehold Borough High School here.

At Freehold Township, ranked 4,323 nationally, the Advanced Placement participation rate is 49 percent. Mathematics proficiency is 33 percent, reading proficiency is 41 percent and the graduation rate is 93 percent. The total minority enrollment is 24 percent, and 10 percent of students are economically disadvantaged. Read more about Freehold Township High School here.

The top school in New Jersey was High Technology High School in Lincroft. Read more: US News Best High Schools 2019: Here's How 350 NJ Schools Ranked

"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."

With reporting by Tom Davis, Patch National Staff.

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