Great High Schools Making Great Students
William Floyd High School
– Long Island, NY Public School
- Number of students: 2,928
- Student Teacher Ratio:17:1
- Economically disadvantaged students: 1 in 5
- Students Proficient in English: 92%
- Students Proficient in Math: 88%
Featured Student: Kwasi Enin
- Accepted into 8 Ivy League schools
- Scored 2,250 / 2,500 on SAT
- Ranked 11th in class of 647
- Took 11 AP courses
- Sang in school’s a cappella group
- Enin will be attending Yale
University of Chicago Lab High School
– Chicago, Ill. Private School
- Number of students: 1,850
- 99% of students go on to a 4-year college
- Over 150 courses available
- 49% of students are students of color
- Families speak over 60 languages and identify with over 158 ethnicities
Featured Student:Lane Gunderman
- Spent his childhood moving from shelter to shelter
- He was homeschooled until the 6th grade
- Made it to the final round of the Intel Science Talent Search
- Created a synthetic material to mimic a natural scientific process
- Varsity member of the Math and Science Teams
- Gunderman will be attending MIT
The Gow School
– South Wales, N.Y. Boarding School
- Number of students 202
- Student Teacher Ratio: 4:1
- 100% of students who graduate from Gow are accepted to college
- 27% of families are offered financial aidAverage award of $21,260
Featured Student:Izer Martinez
- Overcame dyslexia to become an award-winning competitive slam poet
- He has earned many awards for his poetry from school and at open mic nights
- Martinez was the president of the student council
- Martinez will be attending University of Pennsylvania
The Out-of-Door Academy
– Sarasota, FL College Prep School
- Number of students 650
- Student Teacher Ratio: 8.5:1
- Faculty members having advanced degrees: 60%
- 98% of Class received unsolicited merit/academic scholarships$150,000+ average 4-year scholarship per recipient
Featured Student:Brittany Wenger
- Programmed an artificial brain that diagnoses Cancer
- Learned to code at age 7
- Developed Cloud4Cancer, a cloud-based artificial neural network program used to diagnose Breast Cancer malignancy with 99.11% accuracy
- Wenger plans to attend Duke University
How do schools help create success stories?
- 75% of students in the juvenile justice system have histories of serious school attendance problems.
- After 49 hours of professional development of teachers, student performance can increase as much as 21%
- School districts provide numerous opportunities for faculty training
Provided Development:
- A school year schedule of all professional development
- Subject focused sessions
- New Teacher Institute for faculty in first 4 years of teaching
- Mentor Program for newer teachers as well
- 10 Page list of approved courses for teachers to take with outside organizations
- The implementation of stated goals allows schools to strive toward specific ends
- Using the previous years’ tests scores and reviews, schools can improve their education programs
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- Sources:
- gow.org/page.cfm?p=679
- wfsd.k12.ny.us/pdf/codeofconduct.pdf
- wfsd.k12.ny.us/pdf/approvedcourses.pdf
- edsource.org/wp-content/uploads/hd-13-10.pdf”>
- cnn.com/2014/04/30/us/new-york-student-selects-yale”>
- businessinsider.com/most-impressive-high-school-graduates-2013-6?op=1″>
- wfsd.k12.ny.us/news/14/04/WFSDProfessionalDevelopmentPlan2013-2014.pdf”>
- ucls.uchicago.edu/data/files/gallery/ContentGallery/HS_Profile_201314hires1.pdf”>
- usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/03/31/ivy-league-admissions-college-university/7119531″>
- new.every1graduates.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/FINALChronicAbsenteeismReport_May16.pdf”>
- usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/new-york/districts/william-floyd-union-free-school-district/william-floyd-high-school-13862″>