Washington and Kennedy high schools make Newsweek list of America’s best

Two Cedar Rapids High Schools – Washington and Kennedy- are the top-ranked Iowa high schools on Newsweek Magazine's 2010 list of “America's Best High Schools.” Each year Newsweek picks the best high schools in the country based on how hard school staffs work to challenge students with advanced placement college-level courses and tests.

“The culture of our school encourages students to take our most challenging academic courses, and that leads to our high Newsweek ranking,” said Dr. Ralph Plagman, Washington principal.

Washington is ranked 365 out of the 27,000 public high schools in America. Kennedy is ranked 421, making the greatest gain from the 2009 list when it was ranked 755.

“It is a credit to our students and staff that we were able to make such a huge gain from a year ago,” noted Dr. Mary Wilcynski, Kennedy Principal. “We are thrilled to be on a list of the elite high schools in America.”

The annual Newsweek list is compiled by taking the number of Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate tests given at a school each year and dividing by the number of seniors graduating that spring. Newsweek lists all public high schools where that ratio is 1.0 or higher. The 2010 list of “America's Best High Schools” includes just over 1,600 schools which is about 6% of all public high schools in the U.S.

The other Iowa high schools on the list are Iowa City West, Mid-Prairie, Ames, and West Des Moines Valley. The list of “America's Best High Schools” is based on 2009 data. The list can be accessed at http://www.newsweek.com/feature/2010/americas-best-high-schools/list.html