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U.S. News reports four Valley high schools among Ohio’s best
By Denise Dick
Four Mahoning Valley high schools are among the state’s best in college readiness, according to a magazine’s annual ranking.
The list released this morning by U.S. News ranked 21,150 public high schools across the country.
Columbiana High School is the top Valley high school, ranked 86th in Ohio and 1,639th nationally, earning it a silver medal.
Schools received gold, silver or bronze medals, showing the degree of college readiness.
Hubbard ranked 90th in Ohio and 1,687th nationally; Poland Seminary, 98th in Ohio and 1,743rd nationally; and Lakeview, 108th in Ohio and 1,855th nationally, earning each of those schools silver medals, too.
This year’s state rankings for those schools mirror those on last year’s list.
Thirteen other Valley high schools, while not ranked, earned bronze medals for college readiness: Canfield, Southington Chalker, Crestview, Girard, Howland, Jackson-Milton, Lowellville, South Range, Springfield, United, West Branch, Western Reserve and Youngstown Early College.
Those schools also earned bronze medals on the 2014 list.
No Valley school earned a gold medal.
Ohio’s top-ranked school is Walnut Hills High School in Cincinnati, which earned a gold medal and the 77th spot on the national list. The School for the Talented and Gifted in Dallas earned the No. 1 spot nationally for the fourth year.
“It’s the AP [Advanced Placement] offerings and the number of kids we have available to those,” said Don Mook, Columbiana schools superintendent.
The school has increased its AP and College Credit Plus courses in recent years.
“With what kids have available to them, we want to be able to be as competitive with what we can offer in our academics as possible,” Mook said.
This year, College Credit Plus, a program that allows high school students to earn college credit for certain high school courses, is changing requirements for instructors.
The state requires those teaching a College Credit Plus course to have completed at least 18 hours of graduate coursework in the content area they’ll teach.
Mook said the district plans to hire high school math and science teachers with that graduate coursework so they can teach additional AP courses for students. A master’s degree in one of those subject areas, though, may mean the district has to pay more.
Hubbard Superintendent Raymond Soloman attributes the school’s high ranking to the hard work of teachers, administrators “and everyone working together for the best interests of all of our students.”
The district works with Youngstown State University, Eastern Gateway Community College and Kent State University to provide students opportunities for college courses, he said.
About 44 percent of the school’s students take AP or College in High School courses.
That number is a result of both school personnel encouraging students to pursue those classes and students who want to take them.
“It goes hand-in-hand with everyone working together from the top down,” Soloman said.
Poland Superintendent David Janofa said more than 50 percent of his high school students are enrolled in the college-credit courses.
“What I attribute it to is great kids, great teachers and administrators,” he said. “I think the school board has to be recognized for what programs they have allowed to be implemented related to college readiness.”
It’s about providing students with opportunities in high school that will prepare them for life beyond high school in either college or the work force, Janofa said.
The school board is considering expanding its College Credit Plus courses in math and science, he said.
That means teachers may have to take additional graduate coursework. A teacher, for example, with a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction who wants to teach a College Credit Plus course in biology would have to complete at least 18 graduate hours in that field under the new state guidelines.
Lakeview Superintendent Bob Wilson credits the school faculty.
“We just have a tremendous student-centered faculty who engage all kids to prepare them for the next level whatever that is — post-secondary, career or the military,” he said. “They know our kids.”
Wilson believes the number of students who pass the tests is more significant than the number who take the college-credit courses.
“Our College in High School calculus, we’re in our third year now, we have 100 percent passage rate,” Wilson said.