WHHS makes Newsweek's top 500 high schools list

West Hempstead High School was recently recognized by a national magazine as one of America’s best high schools — an accolade some want advertised and promoted.

“The kids of West Hempstead and Island Park work very hard with some of the most amazing teachers to achieve such high standards, and this just proves that all of their hard work and dedication did not go unnoticed,” said West Hempstead parent Loraine Magaraci, who added that the district should publicize the achievement in Island Park, where students now have a choice between attending West Hempstead and Long Beach high schools. “I want Island Park to know how wonderful our school is … I think it’s important for them to have as many facts about our school before they make their choice.”

In its annual Best High Schools in America list, Newsweek Magazine ranked West Hempstead High School 487 out of 500 schools it ranked using a new system for the first time in the decade since it began ranking the country’s high schools.

“These are challenging times for secondary education,” the magazine wrote in its introduction to the list. “Cash-strapped school districts are cutting back; No Child Left Behind mandates test results; parents and students stress unabated. Newsweek … revamped its methodology this year in hopes of highlighting solutions.”

According to the magazine, Newsweek enlisted a panel of experts to “develop a yardstick that fully reflects a school’s success turning out college-ready (and life-ready) students.” The experts — Wendy Kopp of Teach for America, Tom Vander Art of Open Education Solutions and Linda Darling-Hammond, Stanford professor of education and founder of the School Redesign Network — created a formula comprised of six components to calculate a school’s success:

• Graduation rate — 25 percent
• College matriculation rate — 25 percent
• AP tests taken per graduate — 25 percent
• Average SAT/ACT scores — 10 percent
• Average AP/IB/AICE scores — 10 percent
• AP courses offered — 5 percent

Newsweek examined 1,000 schools and chose 500 for its list. West Hempstead was one of 24 Long Island high schools on the list.

“We are pleased to have made Newsweek’s list,” said Superintendent John Hogan. “Our commitment continues to be a quality education for all our students, K to 12.”

When prompted by Magaraci at a recent Board of Education meeting, Hogan said the district will work on promoting the achievement.

“I am so happy that Newsweek recognized our students and our school,” Magaraci said. “I am always out bragging about what we offer our students and how they take full advantage of it. … So I would like to thank Newsweek for telling American what I already know — the students from West Hempstead High School are amazing. And you never know, maybe we will be number 200 next year.”