News5

BY REX ZIMMERMAN
South Barber High School was one of only 39 high schools in Kansas to be recognized for academic excellence in a study recently published in U.S. News & World Report.
The publication teamed up with School Evaluation Services, a K-12 education and data research and analysis business, to analyze academic and enrollment data from more than 18,000 public high schools to find the very best across the country. These top schools were then placed into gold, silver or bronze medal categories.
South Barber and 37 other Kansas schools received bronze awards from the magazine while one other high school received a silver award. And when the 39 schools are further ranked by their State Test Performance Index, only 11 schools fare better than South Barber High School.
“I think the ranking of South Barber High School as one of the top high schools in the nation by U.S. News is a real “feather in the hat” for our community,” said U.S.D. 255 School Superintendent Bob Hightree. “We know we have an excellent school and excellent students but this is an evaluation done by an outside, independent, nationally recognized agency and removes any bias which might be seen from our own determination or evaluation process. Everyone should be extremely proud, especially the students and their teachers.”
Hightree also said he was surprised and disappointed that nothing about the U.S. News & World Report article had been relayed to the school from the State Department of Education.
The extensive evaluation process used by U.S. News & World Report and School Evaluation Services (an education research business run by Standard & Poor’s) was based on the key principles that a great high school must serve all its students well, not just those who are bound for college, and that it must be able to produce measurable academic outcomes that show the school is successfully educating its student body across a range of performance indicators.
A total of 18,790 public high schools in 40 states were analyzed using data from the 2005-06 school year. A three-step process was used, with the first two steps designed to ensure that the schools serve all of their students well, using state proficiency standards as the measuring benchmarks. For those schools that made it past the first two steps, a third step assessed the degree to which schools prepared students for college-level work.
The top 100 schools overall were awarded gold medals, while the next 405 top-performing high schools nationwide earned silver medals. Bronze medals were awarded to an additional 1,086 high schools across the country, including South Barber.
“This was a very pleasant surprise,” SBHS Principal Monty Thompson said. “Our teachers work very hard at providing the best education possible for our students and I’ve always believed we have the best students. It’s very gratifying to know that these efforts have been recognized by an outside agency.”
He added that the community should be very proud of the accomplishments of the students and faculty.
“There were only 39 schools recognized in Kansas,” Thompson continued. “Our State Test Performance Index of 140.4 was 12th highest. We challenge our students and faculty every year to ‘turn it up another notch’. They have and will continue to do so.”
Ten states, including Oklahoma, were not able to be included in the study because they either did not make their state test data available or had insufficient information.
To see the full study, go to “usnews.com” or click on the link on our website at “kiowanews.com”.