MSSM among Top 100 high schools

    LIMESTONE — U.S. News & World Report ranked the Maine School of Science and Mathematics as a Gold Medal Top Performing (Top 100) public high school in the nation. This is the third year of the US. News & World Report rankings and the third year that the Maine School of Science and Mathematics is recognized as a Gold Medal high school.
    The MSSM is the only school from Maine to make the gold medal list. Two other schools in New England made the top 100 – Boston Latin, 24th and Belmont High School, 100th, both of Massachusetts.
    Four Maine high schools earned silver medals and three earned bronze medals. The ranking evaluates more than 21,000 public high schools in the country. Overall, Maine schools are ranked 9th in the nation.
    Upon learning the news, the MSSM’s Acting Executive Director/Academic Dean, Catherine Bowker stated that “we are very pleased to have the hard work and dedication of our students and faculty recognized. This is also well deserved recognition for the state of Maine and a testament to the quality education offered by Maine’s public schools,” she added
    The ranking focuses primarily on college-readiness, though it also used measures to determine how well the schools serve all its students, not just those who are bound for college. The methodology use to rank schools uses advanced placement (AP) data as the major benchmark for success. AP is a College Board program that offers college-level courses at high schools across the country; AP results measured which schools produced the best college-level achievement for the highest percentages of their students. The rankings also looked for schools in which economically-disadvantaged students performed better than would statistically be expected, and where minorities and low-income students performed better than the average for their group in the same state.
    Opened in 1995, MSSM has an enrollment of 135 students from all around Maine. In 2009, the graduating class of 43 students received approximately $3 million in scholarship awards.
    The full list of schools, methodology, and news reporting on the rankings can be found at: http://www.usnews.com/sections/education. Additional information about the Maine School of Science and Mathematics can be obtained by visiting www.mssm.org.