- April 24, 2024
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The U.S. News & World Report releases its list of top schools in the country each year, but this is the first year that any Flagler County schools have been included on it.
Both Matanzas and Flagler Palm Coast placed on the 2013 Best High Schools in the Nation list. Matanzas ranked in the top 7% of high schools nationwide, with a placement of 1,523rd of 21,035 public high schools. FPC was in the top 11% of high schools, ranking 2,242nd in the nation.
Principals at both schools credited the achievement to staff and teachers for pushing toward increased achievement.
“I was so excited, honestly, I cried,” said Lynette Shott, principal of FPC, adding that a focus on the structure of classes for the last five years and teacher development and input programs started three years ago spurred students to greater success rates. "It's very exciting to be included on a list of the best schools in the entire country."
Likewise, Dr. Chris Pryor, principal of Matanzas High School, said his school has been using high-yield strategies that focus on individual needs to increase student success. Matanzas encourages its teachers to use educational approaches like summarizing and using graphic organizers, which, Pryor said, have been scientifically proven to boost learning.
The rankings, which were developed in a partnership with the American Institute of Research, put Matanzas High School as the 72nd best school in Florida. Flagler Palm Coast High School ranked 87th.
The AIR analyzed schools by first determining whether their students were perfoming better than statistically expected in their respective states. If they were, the research group determined whether the schools demonstrated that their least-advantaged students were performing statistically better than expected throughout the state. Finally, the AIR analyzed Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate test data to measure college readiness of students.
“I’m very happy for our teachers; they’re the ones who do the work,” Shott said. “But while it’s great to be ranked on a national list, we never lose sight of the fact that there’s always places to go. We want to keep moving forward.”
