U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT NAMES HIGHLANDS ONE OF AMERICA’S BEST HIGH SCHOOLS
(May 9, 2012) Highlands High School was again named one of “America’s Best High Schools” by the recent US News & World Report “America’s Best High Schools 2012” report, receiving a Gold Medal designation. Nearly 22,000 high schools were analyzed, and this designation was given to the top 500 schools in the entire country.
Additionally, Highlands is one of five schools in the Commonwealth of Kentucky to earn a gold medal designation, the highest award given.
Superintendent Gene Kirchner stated, “I am excited to see that Highlands High School received a Gold Medal designation, ranking in the top 500 high schools in the nation.”
Schools were awarded gold, silver, or bronze medals based on state proficiency standards, how well they prepare students for college, and other factors. U.S. News teamed with the Washington, D.C.-based American Institutes for Research (AIR), one of the largest behavioral and social science research organizations in the world, to complete this study.
AIR implemented U.S. News's comprehensive rankings’ methodology, which is based on the key principles that a great high school must serve all of 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.