All three Coweta County School System high schools have been recognized once again as being among the country’s “Best High Schools” by U.S. News and World Report.
U.S. News recently released its 2022 “Best High Schools” list, which recognizes high-achieving public, magnet and charter schools across the U.S. U.S. News’ 2022 Best High Schools numerically ranked 17,843 high schools nationwide and 469 in Georgia this year as a part of its survey. Schools with a national rank in the top 40 percent nationally achieved status among the country’s “Best” high schools.
Northgate, Newnan and East Coweta High Schools all ranked in the upper end of US high schools nationally, across the state of Georgia, and among Metro Atlanta high schools. All three high schools have achieved a ranking on U.S. News’ “Best High Schools” list for several years.
“This recognition tells us that our Coweta County high school graduates are very competitive when compared to their peers nationally,” said Coweta Superintendent Evan Horton. “And all three of our high schools, representing our whole community, are performing at very high levels, even under challenging circumstances.”
Performance data for this year’s report was taken from the 2019-2020 school year, which was impacted in March 2020 by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and state-mandated closure of schools during the last semester.
“Particularly given the difficulty of that year for everyone – for our students, teachers and families – I am very proud of this level of student achievement,” said Horton. “I am proud of our entire school system, as this represents a K through 12 effort, and for our whole community, but this speaks to exceptional perseverance and focus on the part of our graduates and high school faculties.”
The criteria for ranking on the annual “Best High Schools” list includes College Readiness (the proportion of a school’s 12th graders that took and passed AP or IB exams), State Assessment Proficiency (overall performance on state assessments that are required for graduation), State Assessment Performance (how overall student performance compared with what U.S. News predicted for a school with its demographic characteristics in its state), College Curriculum Breadth (12th graders who took and passed multiple AP or IB exams), Underserved Student Performance (assessing learning outcomes among several student subgroups), and Graduation Rate (the proportion of students who graduated on time in 2020).
Some of the criteria listed for Coweta’s high schools include:
East Coweta High School
top 38% among high schools nationally
top 32% among Georgia high schools
Students Taking at Least One AP® Exam – 31%
Passed at Least One AP Exam – 17%
Graduation Rate – 90%
Newnan High School
top 24% among high schools nationally
top 21% among Georgia high schools
Students Taking at Least One AP Exam – 33%
Passed at Least One AP Exam – 22%
Graduation Rate – 92%
Northgate High School
top 18% among high schools nationally
top 15% among Georgia high schools
Students Taking at Least One AP Exam – 42%
Passed at Least One AP® Exam – 26%
Graduation Rate – 93%
To read more about U.S. News & World Report’s 2022 Best High Schools rankings of Coweta high schools, go here.
