The global race for talent is under way and the United States is falling behind. Fewer than half of American high school graduates are ready for college-level math, while even fewer are prepared for science courses in college.
That does not sit well with the country's leading employers, companies such as ExxonMobil, Dell Computer, Siemens, AT&T, Ford, Dow Chemical, and others in industries ranging from telecommunications to medicine. These corporations will not be able to build the next smartphones or antibiotics or automobiles without a workforce that understands math and science subject matter.
To answer the call, a number of high schools are leading the way in teaching math and science (as well as engineering and technology, the so-called STEM subjects) to their students. About one third are application-based schools, while the others are open-enrollment institutions that can draw on a student body that may have been exposed to the topics through parents or peers.
High schools in Northern California, for example, have many students who are the sons and daughters of Silicon Valley workers. And schools in Texas benefit from the Lone Star state's clusters of high-tech workers whose children attend these public schools.
In recognition of their efforts, U.S. News & World Report is introducing its first ranking of the Best High Schools for Math and Science. The ranking of 208 schools is drawn from the larger universe of U.S. News's Best High School rankings.
To qualify for the Math and Science ranking, a school first had to be listed as either Gold, Silver, or Honorable Mention in the U.S. News Best High Schools rankings published in December 2009. That meant 598 high schools were eligible to be ranked using data from 2008 graduates.
[Read more about the Best High Schools for Math and Science methodology.]
The top-performing math and science school is High Technology High School in Lincroft, N.J., with 283 students. Getting in is highly competitive, with some 300 applicants a year for 60 available spots.
"Any school that ranks first on our list is doing an extremely good job motivating and educating its students," says U.S.News & World Report Editor Brian Kelly. "But all of these schools are doing a good job for America by making sure the country is producing the next generation workforce."
District superintendent Tim McCorkell acknowledges the ingredients are in place for a successful outcome at the Lincroft school, since the students enter the institution primed for math and science. But he says it still is a challenge to motivate such intelligent students. He describes High Tech High as a "restaurant, but we only serve one item on the menu."
See U.S. News's coverage of Best High Schools for rankings, STEM news, and more.
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