Magazine ranks school 7th in Pa.; 39 UHS students named National Merit Scholars
EAST MARLBOROUGH — A national magazine ranked Unionville High School as the 7th best public high school in the state of Pennsylvania, while the school also announced Monday that 39 students had qualified as National Merit Scholars.
Unionville High School.
U.S. News and World Report recently released its list of the Best High Schools in America. Schools were awarded gold, silver or bronze medals based on their performance on state assessments and how well they prepare students for college. U.S. News reviewed more than 31,200 public high schools in all 50 states and the District of Columbia to compile the elite list.
Unionville High School received a gold medal and was ranked among the top 1.6 percent of public high schools leading it to be named the 7th best public high school in Pennsylvania. In addition, 39 Unionville students were named National Merit Scholars by the National College Board. In order to be named, students must be among the top 2% in the nation, based upon PSAT scores. That means 11.5% of Unionville’s students are among the top 2% in the nation.
“We are very pleased that Unionville High School has once again been recognized as offering a supreme education,” said John Sanville, superintendent of Unionville-Chadds Ford School District. “These rankings are a testament to the hard work and dedication of our teachers, students, administration, parents and the community to prepare our students for college and beyond. It’s a total team effort.”
The report comes just a few weeks after The Pittsburgh Business Times ranked UnionvilleChadds Ford School District as the number one district in Pennsylvania. “Unionville High School is one of the best in the nation,” Sanville said. “We are humbled by the recognition and proud that we offer our students the greatest opportunities for success.”
According to U.S. News, the 2014 Best High Schools rankings are designed to help families understand the public school options available to them. To produce the report, U.S. News worked with the Washington, D.C.based American Institutes for Research (AIR), one of the largest behavioral and social science research organizations in the world. AIR implemented the U.S. News rankings methodology to determine how well high schools serve all students, not just those who are planning to go to college.
A three-step process determined the Best High Schools. The first two steps ensured that the schools serve all of their students well, using performance on state proficiency tests as the benchmarks. For those schools that made it past the first two steps, a third step assessed the degree to which schools prepare students for college-level work.
