New Hyde Park Memorial, Herricks Ranked in 2013 Newsweek Best Poll

The following article was posted by Geoffrey Walter. It was written by Joe Dowd.

A national poll has ranked New Hyde Park Memorial High School and Herricks High School among the best public high schools in the country. 

New Hyde Park Memorial came in No. 256 on a list of about 2,500 schools surveyed by Newsweek and The Daily Beast, according to a story released this week. That was 39th in New York State. 

Herricks came in at No. 177 overall, good enough for 30th in the state.

Nearby schools including Garden City (139), The Wheatley School (92) and Great Neck South High School (67) shared similar honors. Jericho came in at No. 32 nationwide.

The rankings are based upon a survey sent to some 5,000 schools nationwide, of which about half responded, according to the poll. 

The Newsweek/Daily Beast rankings claim to identify the best 2,000 public high schools in the nation, defined as those proven to be "most effective in turning out college-ready grads."

The rankings are based on surveys submitted to the schools themselves and based on such measurements as graduation rates, college acceptance rates, SAT scores and the number of students enrolled in Advanced Placement courses. 

In the case of New Hyde Park Memorial, the school has a 99 percent graduate rate last year with 98 percent of them college bound. The average SAT score, according to the poll, was 1594. Herricks has a 98 percent graduation rate, 95 percent college bound and an average SAT score of 1735. Other Long Island schools had similar scores. A public school in Buffalo, N.Y., City Honors H.S., actually was rated first in the state and 22nd nationally.

The number one school nationally in the poll: Carol Martin Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science in Bowling Green, Kentucky, according to the poll.

See the Newsweek/Daily Beast results here.

See their methodology here.

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