Beachwood High 'Omitted' from Magazine's Top Schools List

Newsweek magazine came out with it's list of America's best high schools last week. However, did not make the cut. But this won't put a damper on the district as it continues to succeed on many levels.

In a community newsletter, Principal Robert Hardis states the district was "omitted" and "These omissions are the apparent result of a change in Newsweek's ownership and research leadership team that led to their rankings being released despite missing data from many schools locally and nationwide."

Hardis goes on to say in the past the district has been on the list, and was given a high rating in Cleveland magazine's suburb rating.

"An unofficial Newsweek examination of our data concluded that Beachwood High School would have been ranked above all but one area high school that appeared in the published rankings," Hardis said.

The school's lists of accomplisments include earning the highest average SAT (1835) and ACT (26.0) scores of any public school in Northeast Ohio, excluding one school that tested seven students for the SAT. BHS's average 2010 AP exam score was a 4.0 out of 5.

According to the state education department's 2009-2010 report card, BHS earned an "excellent" rating, scored 107.8 points out of 120 on the performance index and had a 97.1 percent graduation rate.

"Rankings such as these are very important to Beachwood High School and our community," Hardis said. "While we regret that BHS was omitted, this in no way diminishes the successes that our students and teachers continue to enjoy."