Shenango Ranked Among Best High Schools for 2013

by Lugene Hudson, New Castle News

Academic excellence and outstanding AP test scores earned Shenango the distinction of being among the Best High Schools for 2013. Shenango was the only school in Lawrence County to receive a silver award for the assessment, which is conducted by U.S. News & World Report and the American Institutes for Research, said Joe McCormick, high school principal at Shenango. The rankings are based on state proficiency standards in math/reading and how well students are prepared for college.

In Pennsylvania, Shenango was ranked 60th out of 687 high schools and within the top 10 percent of high schools in the state, said McCormick. “I view awards such as the Best High Schools medal as both a testament to how hard our students are working and to the incredible job our teaching staff is doing to provide rigorous opportunities to learn and support for our students,” McCormick pointed out. One of the aspects he said he was most excited about was how much of a factor college readiness is in the rankings. “While reading and math scores on state assessments are important, we really value the fact that our students are performing exceptionally well on the college readiness index. Graduating students college and career ready has to be a cornerstone of secondary education if we want to see higher college completion rates and job readiness as a country.” In the Midwestern Intermediate Unit 4, consisting of Lawrence, Mercer and Butler counties, only one school topped Shenango — Grove City High School.

U.S. News evaluated more than 21,000 public high schools in 49 states and the District of Columbia. About 2 percent of schools were awarded gold; about 7 percent received silver and approximately 13 percent attained bronze. “We’re extremely proud of the hard work of our students and staff over the past few years,” said superintendent Dr. Michael Schreck.
“We’re seeing excellent results for our efforts and it’s part of our commitment to focus on academics.”

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