Newsweek Magazine has again ranked Riverside-Brookfield High School as one of the top high schools in the state. Newsweek ranked RB as the fourth best high school in Illinois and the 195th best in the nation in its annual rankings of high schools that were released recently.
Last year RB was ranked third in the state and 139th in the nation. This year’s rankings are based on data collected from the 2008-09 school year.
The only Illinois high schools ranking ahead of Illinois in this year’s rankings were Northside College Prep High School, Lincoln Park High School and Stevenson High School. Northside College Prep and Lincoln Park are selective enrollment Chicago public schools.
Last year RB was ranked ahead of Stevenson, which is the school that where former RB interim assistant principal Troy Gobble and former RB Fine Arts Department Chairman Jon Grice will begin work this week after resigning their positions at RB.
Newsweek ranked Lyons Township High School 36th in Illinois and 1,305th in the nation.
Newsweek’s rankings are controversial, because they are based on just one factor, the so-called Challenge Index, developed by journalist Jay Mathews. The Challenge Index is derived by taking the total number of Advanced Placement tests taken by a school’s students and dividing that number by the number of seniors in that school’s graduating class.
