West Morris Central High School One Of NJ's Best: 2017 U.S. News And World Report

LONG VALLEY, NJ— West Morris Central High School is one of the best in the state, according to a new 2017 ranking by the U.S. News and World Report.

West Morris Central High School was named the 39th best in the state, and 846th best in the county.

The school earned a silver medal, based on it's college readiness index, AP participation and scores, and proficiency skills.

The other high school in the West Morris Regional High School District, West Morris Mendham, also ranked among the top schools, coming in at 33rd statewide.

Read More: Best New Jersey High Schools In America, 2017: U.S. News And World Report

The 2017 rankings of best high schools identify the top-performing public schools at both the national and the state level and include date on more than 20,000 high schools. To be considered among the best, high schools had to pass a rigorous four-step process that sought to determine whether a school was serving all of its students and not just those who are college bound

Here are those steps:

• The first step determined whether students at a particular school were performing better than statistically expected for students in that state, factoring in percentages of economically disadvantaged students to identify schools.
• Schools that passed this step then moved on to step two, which assessed whether disadvantaged students performed at or better than state averages for the least-advantaged students.
• For the next two steps, U.S. News looked at graduation rates and college readiness performance. To pass step three, high schools had to have a graduation rate of 75 percent or greater. For the 2017 rankings, the graduation rate reflect students who entered the ninth grade in the 2011-2012 school year.
• Finally, U.S. News calculated a college readiness index, which was the number of 12th graders who took and passed at least one AP test, divided by the number of 12th graders at that school. To be ranked numerically nationally, schools had to pass steps 1-3 and have a college readiness index of 20.91 or above.

--With Reporting by Tom Davis (Patch Staff)

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