Newsweek's High School Rankings for 2014: Two Lists Are Better Than One

Pre-College Issues High School Life
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<p>"Assistant Principal Tinell Priddy adds, “I can say that when this is done, there will be no high school the likes of [Thomas Jefferson] in the country. </p>

<p>That might already be the case. Data commissioned by Newsweek, based both on student achievement and college readiness indicators, placed Thomas Jefferson as the highest-performing high school in the United States. Nor is that the first such declaration; administrative offices in the school are adorned with several U.S. News and World Report covers crowning Thomas Jefferson at the top of “America’s Best High Schools.” Can TJ, as students affectionately call it, match that sort of hype? </p>

<p>With its focus on student-driven research, specialized college-level coursework in subjects like computer science and bio-nanotechnology, and high proportion of faculty holding Ph.D.s, Thomas Jefferson hardly resembles a conventional high school." </p>

<p><a href="http://www.newsweek.com/high-schools/americas-top-schools-2014"&gt;http://www.newsweek.com/high-schools/americas-top-schools-2014&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>My oldest just graduated from TJ this spring, and my youngest is in his second year there. It is indeed a very special place. But this list is strange, as they rate the Staten Island Technical HS up in the top 10, but left out NYC"s premier specialized HSs (Stuyvesant, Bronx Science, Brooklyn Tech). </p>