Morris Area High School Recognized as One of America's Best - June 16, 2010
U.S. News & World Report—in collaboration with School Evaluation Services, analyzed academic and enrollment data from public high schools to find the very best across the country. These top schools were placed into gold, silver, bronze, or honorable mention categories. For the third consecutive year, Morris Area High School was selected as one of the best high schools in Minnesota.
The methodology used is based on the key principles that a great high school must serve all its students well, not just those who are college bound, and that it must be able to produce measurable academic outcomes to show the school is successfully educating its student body across a range of performance indicators. A total of 21,786 public high schools were analyzed in 48 states plus the District of Columbia, which is the total number of public high schools that had 12th-grade enrollment and sufficient data, primarily from the 2007-2008 school year, to analyze. A three-step process determined the best high schools. The first two steps ensured that the schools serve all their students well, using state proficiency standards as the benchmarks. For those schools that made it past the first two steps, a third step assessed the degree to which schools prepare students for college-level work.
Morris Area High School was placed in the bronze category, a recognition that MAHS has earned each year since 2008. “Our district is very pleased with this recognition, as it shows the hard work our staff does to offer quality opportunities for all students. In addition, it represents the fact that we have terrific students who strive to do well in everything they take on. We realize that awards are nice to get, but that we need to continue to find ways to improve our programs at the same time we celebrate this accomplishment,” stated Morris Superintendent Scott Monson.
Less than 6.6% of the high schools in Minnesota were selected for gold, silver, or bronze status. No other high schools in Stevens, Traverse, Grant, or Pope County were chosen this year.
Source for much of the information: U.S. News & World Report