Both high schools in Smithtown have scored a place on Newsweek's top 5,000 U.S. high schools rankings, though High School West stands a little higher than its sister school, High School East.
According to Newsweek, West ranked 465, with a graduation rate of 97 percent, a 95 percent college attendance rate, an average SAT score of 1571, an average ACT score of 24 and an average advanced placement testing score of 3.5.
The honor is latest accolade earned by West, which scored a national ranking of 739 and a state ranking of 64 in the recent “Most Challenging High Schools” list published by the Washington Post.
Meanwhile, East ranked 554 in Newsweek, with a graduation rate of 98 percent, a 94 percent college attendance rate, an average SAT score of 1577, an average ACT score of 24 and an average advanced placement testing score of 3.2.
For its rankings, Newsweek sent out a survey to more than 5,000 high schools in the United States, with about 2,500 schools responding in 2013. You can see the details about Smithtown's ranking, and every other ranked high school by clicking on the markers in this interactive map.
The survey scores were then weighted and calculated using several criteria including on-time graduation and college acceptance rates. In addition, instead of averaging the number of courses offered, this year Newsweek considered the percentage of students enrolled in AP, IB or Advance International Certificate courses. The final scores then determined Newsweek’s final rankings.
You can read more about Newsweek's methodology here.
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