Severna Park High Tops in Baltimore Region
U.S. News and World Report High School rankings place Severna Park High in the top 10 schools in Maryland.
Severna Park High School can place a gold medal on the shelf next to its Blue Ribbons thanks to the U.S. News and World Report's fourth edition of the Best High Schools rankings released on Tuesday.
According to the website, Severna Park High ranked eighth among the top 10 in the state and 211th nationally.
A high school must be awarded a national gold or silver medal by the news magazine to be eligible for state ranking.
Severna Park High came in above the national average for college readiness with a 59 percent score. College readiness is based on those who tested and passed the Advanced Placement (AP) exams.
For Severna Park High, 56 percent of students passed the exams (out of 68 percent of the school's population who took the exam).
Other academic indicators included algebra proficiency at 3.6 and English proficiency at 3.5.
"As you can imagine, SPHS is ecstatic to make this list and be so highly ranked. We pride ourselves in our Tradition of Excellence. I am so proud of our hard working teachers and faculty/staff for their continued pursuit of academic endeavors," wrote Patrick Bathras, principal of Severna Park High in an email to Patch.
"It is a pleasure to serve as principal of this very high performing high school, being surrounded by so many talented students."
With an enrollment of 1,923 students and 86 full-time teachers, the school's student/teacher ratio of 22:1 is above the 16:1 national average, according to U.S. News & World Report.
The 2012 rankings include data on nearly 22,000 public high schools from 49 states and the District of Columbia. The methodology used by the news magazine is outlined on its website.
Leslie Brown
8:40 am on Thursday, May 10, 2012
And imagine where we would rank with a building up to code and current technology!
Amy Leahy
9:14 am on Thursday, May 10, 2012
Wow! This is a great testament to the teachers, parents and community involvement at our schools. Way to go SPHS!
Mary King
10:28 am on Thursday, May 10, 2012
While this is a great accomplishment, please remember starting school later could not only improve performance but also reduce the costs of sleep deprivation which are immeasurable.
Ann Brennan
11:59 am on Friday, May 11, 2012
Having gone to a school that was ranked near the bottom of high schools in the country I am constantly amazed by SPHS. My oldest is about to graduate and will be attending West Point in just a month and a half's time. When we were looking at schools and meeting students from across the country, comparing the classes available at these different high schools we were amazed at how much more SPHS offers than many other school.