By JUDY RATTNER and ARIELLA MONTI
South Side came in at number 47 overall. Only 5 percent of the 27,000 U.S. public schools even managed to qualify for the magazine's ranking this year.
"We did very well," said Dr. Carol Burris, principal of South Side High School "We're in the top 100 schools again, based on the challenge index that was devised by Newsweek magazine. Our challenge index is higher than ever as is our excellence and equity rating which is a measure of the percentage of students who graduate having achieved at least a 4 (out of a scale of 7) on at least one International Baccalaureate exam.
"What was expecially encouraging," Burris said, "was that our challenge index has now exceeded other Long Island districts and we are number 2 on Long Island and number 3 in New York state. Recently many small charter schools who select their students are now on the list so the fact that we remained, even though we are an open public high school that educates a wide range of students, is a special accomplishment."
Newsweek rates high schools on a "challenge index," taking the total number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate or Cambridge tests given at a school in May and dividing that by the number of seniors graduating in May or June.
Another factor taken into account is the number of students who had at least one passing grade on those exams. And the population of a school is also considered in the ranking - South Side High School is considered "diverse," with close to a 20 percent minority population and 16 percent of its student quailfying for free and reduced price lunches
Lorrie Brady, school board president said, "We were delighted. It's harder each year to keep your place on the list and if you look at it carefuly, many of the schools that ranked higher than we did have entry critieria. There were many more small charter schools. Clearly Jericho did very well, deservedly so. The fact that South Side was right up there with Jericho when we have a much more diverse, challenging population and we spend far less per student, was a real accomplishment."
Dr. William Johnson, school superintendent said, "It certainly doesn't tell all about South Side High School or the Rockville Centre schools, but it is another point of comparison and again Rockville Centre and South Side are seen as among the best in the country. My thanks to the comunity for their support and the staff for working to very high standards.
"The world we live in is all about quality," he said. "We in the school district, and I know the community, appreciate the fact that the board [of education] has always made quality a priority, providing the resources that enable our students to achieve at very high levels."
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