-By Chris Urban
Rye High School has fallen 85 spots in the 2024 U.S. News & World Report survey of American public high schools.
In the most recent report by U.S. News, RHS ranks 252 nationally out of 17,655 public high schools and 31 in New York state out of 1,279 public high schools. In the 2023 survey, RHS ranked 167 nationally and 17 in New York state.
In 2019, Rye ranked 139 nationwide and 18 in the state, representing a drop of 113 spots nationally and 13 in NYS over the five-year period.
Superintendent of Schools Eric Byrne downplayed the report.
“We have never considered the survey as an indicator, as it is not transparent, and it is not particularly relevant to what is important in schools,” he said. “When we go up and when we go down in the rankings, we do not talk about our USN ranking whatsoever.”
The U.S. News assessment methodology, unchanged from previous years, includes six ranking indicators and their weights that combine to produce the overall score: college readiness (30 percent); state assessment proficiency (20 percent); state assessment performance (20 percent); college curriculum breadth (10 percent); underserved student performance (10 percent); and graduation rate (10 percent).
Despite the change in rank, Rye remains one of the most highly regarded public schools in the country and state, and is graded highly in other important metrics, including the college readiness index (187 nationally) and college curriculum breadth (215 nationally).
Rye had an overall U.S. News score of 98.57/100, based on the following: took at least one AP exam — 91 percent; passed at least one AP exam — 76 percent; mathematics proficiency — 94 percent; reading proficiency — 96 percent; science proficiency — 93 percent; and graduation rate — 98 percent.
The area where RHS struggled most was state assessment performance, for which it ranked 3,712 nationally and 254 in the state. That rank aggregates scores on state assessments and compares them with expectations of students who are Black, Hispanic, and from lower-income households.
RHS has a minority enrollment of only 17.7 percent and had a decline in relative state assessment proficiency rank to 361 nationally and 24 in the state. Those scores consider all students’ aggregate scores on math, reading, and science exams.
Byrne added: “The manipulation of data in these surveys can be quite significant as it is one set of rankings that can be quite arbitrary year to year. We do not promote or talk about these rankings no matter favorable or unfavorable for us.”