Why Was BHS Not Among Top 500?

Barrington High School has traditionally placed near the top of almost every list of Rhode Island’s best schools, and has also been rated highly on many national rankings as well. That is why it came as a surprise last month when Newsweek released its list of the nation’s top 500 high schools, and BHS was nowhere to be found.

One possible explanation is that BHS was never contacted, meaning that its data could not be included. Newsweek relies on self-reported statistics obtained from school officials. 

Newsweek states that it “reached out to administrators, principals, guidance counselors, and Advanced Placement/International Baccalaureate coordinators at more than 10,000 public high schools across the country” to acquire this year’s data.

“Generally, we attempt to contact each school’s principal via email, or we will use contact information given to us during a previous survey,” said Ian Yarett, a reporter with the magazine.

Yarett added that “this method is not always entirely effective, as emails may be forgotten about or lost in spam filters.” 

Indeed, according to the magazine’s website, of the more than 10,000 schools contacted, only the data of 1100 was used to calculate the final rankings.

That means more than 90 percent of the schools contacted did not respond, which makes it quite possible that the email to BHS Principal Joseph Hurley was lost or caught in a spam filter.

Hurley said that he does not remember being contacted, and that it reminds him of a similar ranking done by The Washington Post, which did not include the school either. He added that the Post, like Newsweek, did not reach out to him when compiling its ranking.

Though Barrington did miss out on these two rankings, it still has done well on other past rankings.

Take Forbes’ “Best Schools For Your Real Estate Buck” list, released earlier this year, as an example. The school district came in at number four.