US News High School Rankings: See Toms River East, North South

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.

Toms River North ranked 192nd, Toms River East was 196th and Toms River South was 232nd, with 350 of more than 400 high schools in New Jersey ranked. Donovan Catholic High School was not in the rankings, which do not appear to include any of New Jersey's private high schools.

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 Toms River North, ranked 5,585 nationally, the Advanced Placement participation rate is 31 percent. Mathematics proficiency is 25 percent, reading proficiency is 50 percent, and the graduation rate is 94 percent. The total minority enrollment is 27 percent and 24 percent of students are economically disadvantaged. Read more about Toms River North here.

At Toms River East, ranked 5,710 nationally, the AP participation rate is 31 percent. Mathematics proficiency was 24 percent, reading proficiency was 54 percent and the graduation rate was 88 percent. The total minority enrollment is 16 percent, and 22 percent of students are economically disadvantaged. Read more about Toms River East here.

At Toms River South, ranked 7,535 nationally, the AP participation rate is 32 percent. Mathematics proficiency was 18 percent, reading proficiency was 42 percent and the graduation rate was 92 percent. The total minority enrollment is 26 percent, and 28 percent of students are economically disadvantaged. Read more about Toms River South 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

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."

With reporting by Tom Davis, Patch National Staff.

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