BRHS Ranks High in 'Newsweek' Best in the U.S.

Bridgewater-Raritan High School has made Newsweek’s list of the 2,000 best public high schools in the country, ranking at number 442.

The ranking is based on data that includes college acceptance rate, graduation rate, average SAT scores and more.

According to the findings, BRHS has a 96 percent graduation rate, with 95 percent of students being college bound.

Average SAT scores in Bridgewater, according to Newsweek’s findings, are 1701, and average AP scores are a 4.

These ratings come about two weeks after BRHS did not make the list of top high schools in New Jersey from U.S. News & World Report.

Assistant superintendent Cheryl Dyer said there are several factors that influence the school’s ranking in both magazines. With Newsweek, she said, the first factor is participation in the rankings and schools being required to supply the data requested.

“More schools participated this year,” she said. “For example, last year 74 schools in New Jersey were ranked in the 1,000, and this year 93 schools in New Jersey made the list. Many of the additional 19 schools in New Jersey did not participate last year.”

“If this same increase applies to the other 49 states, a change in ranking from 350 to 442 can be as simple as accounting for the additional schools,” she added.

Dyer said BRHS was actually ranked by Newsweek as 35th in New Jersey last year, and this year the rank in state was 37.

“Given the additional schools that were included, this ranking would either be consistent with last year, or quite possibly better,” she said.

Finally, Dyer said, Newsweek counts graduation rate as 25 percent of the final score. With the new formula used by the New Jersey Department of Education, the school’s graduation rate dropped by 3 percent last year, she said.

As for the U.S. News & World Report rankings, Dyer said their methodology is different from Newsweek's, and it seems the only place in which BRHS was lacking was in its math scores.

“We’ve reviewed the scores that BRHS received from U.S. News & World Report for each of the categories that factor into their rankings,” she said. “While our scores are higher than some schools that were ranked, it appears that BRHS did not receive a ranking this year due to the achievement gap in mathematics.”

According to the figures, Dyer said, minority and economically disadvantaged students at BRHS are not achieving at the same level as the total population.

“This has been and will continue to be an area of focus for the district in terms of academic improvement and meeting the instructional needs of all students,” she said.

Dyer said the methodology for the rankings as a whole for both publications are also skewed by participation in advanced placement tests and the scores. Although those are a good indicator of college readiness, she said, they are not necessarily the best measure of success for all students in the school.

“The bottom line is that our goal is to provide the best education possible for each and every student,” she said.

Somerset County high schools according to Newsweek

Ranking

School

Graduation rate

AP/IB test

College bound

Avg. SAT

Avg. ACT

Avg. AP score

Newsweek score

215

Ridge High School

97

0.8

96

1750

25.6

3.9

3.4

235

Bernards High School

99

0.6

98

1763

25.3

3.7

3.39

442

Bridgewater-Raritan High School

96

0.4

95

1701

24.7

4

3.26

514 

Watchung Hills Regional

97

0.5

93

1660

25.6

3.6

3.22

740

Hillsborough High School

95

0.3

93

1646

24

3.8

3.12

911

Somerville High School

92

0.3

96

1576

23.6

3.6

3.05

* Montgomery High School was not listed in the publication's online ranking.

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