Bloomfield Tech on US News & World Report’s “Best High Schools in America” List

This week, U.S. News and World Report awarded Bloomfield Tech a bronze medal in its list of the best schools in the country. 

Bloomfield Tech, part of the Essex County Vocational Technical Schools, was among 14 New Jersey vocational-technical schools to receive a bronze medal. On its website, US News said the awards were based on student performance on state language arts and math accountability tests, particularly the performance of disadvantaged students, and student participation in and performance on Advanced Placement (AP) exams and International Baccalaureate (IB) exams.

The magazine developed its methodology in concert with the American Institutes for Research and graded the schools based on how well they serve all their students, not just those who are college-bound. More than 29,000 public high schools in 49 states were analyzed, with the exception of Nebraska, which does not compile all the data used in the magazine’s ranking. 

The rankings do not simply compare the usual benchmarks, like graduation rates, class size and performance on standardized tests. Instead, the rankings also took account of how well students from certain groups, like those from low-income families, tend to perform on average. Schools were awarded a higher rank if those student groups performed better than average among their peers at other schools.  

The rankings also looked at how well a school prepared students for college, using metrics like the average performance on Advanced Placement tests. 

The list leaned in favor of vocational schools, with seven of the ten highest-ranked New Jersey schools on the list being county vocational-technical schools.  Thirteen county vocational-technical schools received Gold Medals, one school received a Silver Medal in addition to the aforementioned Bronze medal winners.  Eighty one New Jersey high schools made the magazine’s 2013 list.

Biotechnology High School in Freehold, part of the Monmouth County Vocational School District, led the list of all New Jersey schools and was ranked number 8 nationally.

In a press statement, Dr. Philip Guenther, the President of the New Jersey Council of County Vocational-Technical Schools and the Superintendent of Atlantic County Institute of Technology, noted that  31 percent of the New Jersey schools on the U.S. News list are county vocational-technical schools.

“It’s important to note that while many of the schools on the list are specialized academies for high-performing students with specific career goals, ten of them are larger county-vocational schools that provide a wide variety of technical programs," Dr. Guenther said. “It’s also gratifying to see the recognition given to a number of county vocational-technical schools that serve large numbers of economically-disadvantaged students, many of whom enter high school performing below grade level in many academic areas,” Dr Guenther said.

The New Jersey county vocational-technical high schools on U.S. News’ 2013 “Best High Schools” list are:

Gold Medal
• Biotechnology High School (Freehold) – Monmouth County Vocational School District
• High Tech High School (Lincroft) – Monmouth County Vocational School District
• Bergen Academies (Hackensack) – Bergen County Technical Schools
• Bergen Tech (Teterboro) – Bergen County Technical Schools
• Middlesex County Academy for Science, Math and Engineering Technologies (Edison)
• Academy for Allied Health Sciences (Scotch Plains) – Union County Vocational-Technical School
• Academy of Allied Health and Science (Neptune) – Monmouth County Vocational School District
• Academy for Information Technology (Scotch Plains) – Union County Vocational-Technical School
• Union County Magnet High School (Scotch Plains) – Union County Vocational-Technical School
• Marine Academy of Science and Technology (Highlands) – Monmouth County Vocational School District

Silver Medal
• High Tech High School (North Bergen) – Hudson County Schools of Technology

Bronze Medal/National Recognition
• Academy for Math, Science and Engineering (Rockaway) – Morris County Vocational School District
• Atlantic County Institute of Technology (Mays Landing)
• Bloomfield Tech (Bloomfield) – Essex County Vocational Technical Schools
• Camden County Technical Schools Pennsauken Campus
• Communications High School (Wall) – Monmouth County Vocational School District
• County Prep High School (Jersey City) – Hudson County Schools of Technology
• Marine Academy of Technology and Environmental Science (Manahawkin) – Ocean County Vocational-Technical School
• Middlesex County Academy for Allied Health and Medical Science (Woodbridge)
• Morris County School of Technology (Denville)
• Newark Tech (Newark) – Essex County Vocational Technical Schools
• North 13th Street Tech (Newark) – Essex County Vocational Technical Schools
• Passaic County Institute of Technology (Wayne)
• Somerset County Vocational & Technical Schools (Bridgewater)
• Union County Tech (Scotch Plains)

Here is the complete list of New Jersey schools included in the 2013 “Best High Schools” ranking.

Here is the news release from U.S. News, which contains links to FAQs and a description of the survey methodology.