Once again, it appears that Wellesley High has been snubbed in the Newsweek rankings of public high schools based on the school’s ability to crank out college-ready grads who have taken Advanced Placement courses, slayed the SAT/ACT, and jumped through other academic hoops. (19 other Massachusetts schools are listed including Weston, Medfield, Newton North, and Natick).
List rankings are based on six components: graduation rate (25 percent), college acceptance rate (25 percent), AP/IB/AICE tests taken per student (25 percent), average SAT/ACT scores (10 percent), average AP/IB/AICE scores (10 percent), and percent of students enrolled in at least one AP/IB/AICE course (5 percent).
Things aren’t entirely as they appear, however. It’s unclear whether Wellesley was even in the running for Newsweek ranking glory, since schools can be included only if they reply to the publication’s request to participate in their survey. As you can imagine, WHS Principal Jamie Chisum gets many of these solicitations each year. He says he doesn’t remember seeing that one come across his desk.
So maybe those who pay attention to Newsweek’s survey don’t even know that WHS exists. Frankly, it was news to us that Newsweek still does.
Also of interest…
WHS #15 on US News and World Report Ranking
WHS #6 on Boston Magazine rankings
WHS #8 on the say-so of Niche Rankings
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