Best High Schools: Top Open Enrollment Schools

MCLEAN !!!!!!!!

woot!! GO MCLEAN

Northshore High School, Slidell, LA

Northshore High School does have an AP curriculum and its students are very successful in the curriculum. LSU has recognized the school as one of its highest performing schools for students who test out of college level classes. This is true for each of the past five years. Please credit Northshore High School for its AP Curriculum and college placement success. The rankings have consistantly eliminated this performance each of the past several years of school rankings. The Bronze level is appreciated, but it does not take into account the AP achievements of Northshore High School which would have awarded the school with a Gold Medal status.

International Academy?? open enrollment

i live in bloomfied and i know that this is not open enrollment, you have to reach a certain grade point and then its a lottery on who gets in and who doesnt

This is the real list

The real top 100 should be this open enrollment list.

I remember when Jefferson first started in FCPS, I was in 8th grade and thought about applying but didn't have the grades. Didn't matter much, since every other major Fairfax County school is either in the top 100 or very near it. Considering it's the select FCPS school it should be place in the "elite" pile. Its dominance is completely unfair.

The application process for Jefferson is long and protracted too, and like most scholastic elite farms the entrance requirement has little to do with actual talent, which most kids don't show that early in the first place. It's just a place where they put the kids who take the most tests and work the hardest for the best science grades. Imagine it ending up #1, what a surprise. Year after year.

I believe I speak for the majority of FCPS alums from Woodson (90), Langley (76), McLean (55), and Robinson, Oakton, and Lake Braddock (100's to 200's, and each top 100 some years) when I say: US News it is time you kick Jefferson off the damn list. They are a select school with the kids with the best grades from the above schools, and kids flunk out of it all the time too. Robinson and Lake Braddock on the other hand are overwhelmed with 4,000 kids and open enrollment, and still make gold now and then. Jefferson belongs in the elite category with the private schools.

I vote Walt Whitman number 1 because it's the best bona fide, real high school.

open enrollment, really?

i don't know what they mean by minimum eligibility requirements but for the international academy in bloomfield hills, mi you have to be selected in a lottery system in order to attend. i don't exactly consider that open enrollment...

response to whoever wrote Mission Fremont of CA

i dont know what you think "open enrollment" means...but you have to live within a certain boundary for every school.

Open Enrollement Mission San Jose High

Mission San Jose High School in Fremont, Ca is not an Open Enrollment High School. You must live within the specific boundary of this school in order to attend and you must prove it to the School District. Furthermore, Mission San Jose High is notorious for cheating, not helping students in need, and throwing students out who have difficulties. They do not have a minority of any type because close to 90% of their population is Asian, which is the majority in that area. Their facilities are deplorable as well and the administration for years has been funneling money out of the school into their own pockets. How can you say this school is Open Enrollment? How can you put this school as your top 100 when it has the worst physical facility in the nation (it is a health hazard to change in the locker rooms there as well as multiple other issues). Your rankings are absurd.

Way to go, top schools

Talk about frustrating -- how about comments like this:

"A minority child from a low income home (especially one where English is not spoken) must "pass the test," or he / she will be a mark against us in each of those categories."

I know how disabling NCLB has been to many public schools, especially in low INCOME areas (note that family economics are a much more accurate indicator of a child's success in school than the color of their skin). I'm glad there is a list that shows who's doing it right, and, for the record, there is also an informative list of schools who are doing right by "high risk" students, including ESL students. For both, the educators, administrators, parents, and students deserve to be recognized for their achievements, not shunned because they're white, upper middle class, or have two parents in the home. There are still plenty of people doing it wrong under those circumstances, and those factors do not automatically create a successful school population.

International Academy Bloomfield

To Mr. Jones of VA, My school is definitely on open enrollment school application is required strictly for schedule purpose, I had a C+ in Algebra and passed the math test the first time it was taken, also you live in virginia so how would you know all this. As for failing out of the school, if you get a 60% test average or a 60% overall in any subject grades 9-10, you must take summer school, only in 11-12 grades is it possible to be sent back but only if you FAIL a class, even so you can petition to stay, IA is a wonderful school and it's alumni are among the top students of public high-schools in the country, our enrollment is limited only because we are housed in an old elementary school and there is simply not enough room. If you are angry because your child couldn't make the cut then don't give out misinformation that you don't know anything about.

Adjustments for SES of Students

What consideration was taken about the quality of student entering these top level schools?

I'm not impressive to turn an ideal product out of ideal or even good materials. They provide no incite into processes which would inform other schools who are working with real disadvantages such as language barriers, poverty, violence, and the like.

The more complex question is, which schools are truly transformative? Which schools are able to take any 9th grade student and, by the time their graduating in 12th grade, have them well prepared for college? Those are the schools I really want to learn about.