Parkland, Coral Springs Schools Among Newsweek’s Top High Schools

Published May 26th, 2008

By Nicol Jenkins
Editor

Some Parkland and Coral Springs schools made the list for Newsweek magazine’s top high schools in the nation.
Eight Broward County schools were honored and among those Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland and J.P. Taravella High School in Coral Springs. Douglas ranked 25th in the state and 136th in the nation.
Taravella ranked 80th in the state and 656th in the nation.

“This is first time we made the list and we are very excited about our AP participation and success rate,” said Taravella principal Shawn Cerra.

Douglas principal Ann Kowalski added,“I’m very proud of our students and staff who work very hard to provide the best quality education. One of the key components is rigor and relevance in the classroom. Over 2,000 AP tests were given, which is the most in the district.”

The rankings are derived by adding up the number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate or Cambridge tests taken by students at a school divided by the number of seniors graduating the same year. This year’s list is based on data from the 2006/07 school year.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas improved on its ratio earned in the 2007 listing. This was the first year that J.P.

Taravella made the list. All of the schools on the list have an index of at least 1.000, meaning they are in the top five
percent of public schools, based on this specific calculation. Public schools that achieved a ratio of at least 1.000 means they had as many tests in 2007 as they had graduates. Overall, 1,358 public high schools nationwide, including 120 in the state of Florida, were recognized.