Princeton HS Ranks #6 Among NJ's Most Challenging High Schools

The Washington Post has ranked Princeton High School number six among the state's most challenging high schools, according to a recently released report. 

Students in cranbury attend PHS after they've finished eighth grade at The Cranbury School.

The Challenging High School index identifies schools that excel in “persuading average students to take college-level courses and tests.” This year, only 9 percent of the approximately 22,000 high schools in the nation earned the Challenging High School's Index rating and placed on the list.

Princeton ranked high because, like the other schools on the index, many students of all abilities demonstrated a high level of college readiness. The Post's rating system factored out schools that focused only on what it calls the “elite” students, noting that many “high schools kept those rates artificially high by allowing only top students to take the [college-level] courses.”

The Post's findings contrast to the results of the US News & World Report recently released high school rankings, which removed Princeton High School from the rankings altogether after ranking PHS in the top 10 in the state and 196th in the nation last year.

Some key differences between the two reports:

• The Washington Post distinguishes between open-enrollment versus schools with highly selective enrollment, whereas US News & World Report treats public, charter, and magnet school equally, regardless of demographics and enrollment practices. The Washington Post's report does not include magnet or charter high schools. 
• US News & World Report used data on Advanced Placement tests. The Washington Post relied upon a metric invented by the College Board. The Equity and Excellence rate is “the percent of all graduating seniors, including those who never took an AP course, who had at least one score of 3 or above on at least one AP test sometime in high school.” 

Key aspects of the Washington Post's findings are consistent with both the US News & World rankings, as well as the new School Performance Report issued by the New Jersey Department of Education:

All three reports score PHS high in preparing its students for college and careers.