Newsweek names six schools among top high schools

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Newsweek listed six Mahoning Valley high schools on two lists, one for America’s best schools and the other for the country’s top schools for low-income students.

The lists are part of the magazines’s 2014 “America’s Top High Schools” feature.

It ranks Maplewood No. 173 of 500 on the Top Schools list and Canfield No. 456. This list includes “schools that do the absolute best job of preparing students for college,” the magazine’s website says.

The magazine’s other list, the top schools for low-income students, ranks Maplewood No. 68, Girard Senior High No. 89, Youngstown Early College No. 251, Springfield High No. 327 and Boardman No. 404. The list is of out of 500 for “Beating The Odds 2014 — Top Schools For Low- Income Students.”

“This year, Newsweek sought to recognize schools that beat the odds, performing better than statistically expected for their level of poverty,” the magazine’s website says.

The list ranks schools on how well they prepare their students for college, taking students’ socioeconomic background into account.

A gold star next to a school’s name means that low-income students are scoring at or above average on state assessments, recognizing schools that narrow the achievement gap. Each of the five schools earned a gold star.

The list indicates Maplewood’s poverty level is 41 percent; Girard’s is 95 percent; YEC’s is 87 percent; Springfield’s is 82 percent; and Boardman’s is 29 percent.