Several high schools in the western suburbs, including Riverside Brookfield and Lyons Township high schools, were deemed some of the best in the nation last week when Newsweek released its annual ranking of the top 1,500 U.S. public high schools.

Coming in at 139th, Riverside-Brookfield High School was ranked the highest among high schools in the Chicago suburbs. It’s the fifth consecutive year the school has made the list.

Interim Superintendent David Bonnette said the district is honored to be recognized as being an elite suburban high school that offers challenging programs to its students.

“I think there are many different ways to try to access the quality of a high school program, and I think one of the things that has been a positive feature of the school district here is that it does reach out to provide a challenging curriculum to all its students,” Bonnette said.

This year, according to the magazine’s report, “less than 6 percent of the approximately 27,000 U.S. public high schools managed to reach that standard and be placed on the list.”

Lyons Township High School ranked 1,318 out of the 1,500 schools. LT Superintendent Dennis Kelly said his reaction to the rating was the same as it is every year.

“It’s bogus research,” Kelly said. “I don’t consider it to be valid. I consider it as a way to sell magazines.”

The Newsweek rankings are based on a formula taking the total number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate or Cambridge tests given at a school in May, and dividing it by the number of seniors graduating in May or June.

“Any school that achieves a ratio of at least 1.000, meaning they had as many tests in 2008 as they had graduates, are put on the list,” Newsweek’s report said.

The Newsweek study, Kelly said, falls short because it is based on the number of students and the number of tests taken “with no indicator at all of how well the kids did.”

Reporters Joe Sinopoli, Annie Reed and Janice Hoppe contributed to this report.

Reasons behind the rankings
For more information about Newsweek’s list of top the 1,500 high schools visit newsweek.com.
“AP, IB and Cambridge are important because they give average students a chance to experience the trauma of heavy college reading lists and long, analytical college examinations. Studies by U.S. Department of Education senior researcher Clifford Adelman in 1999 and 2005 showed that the best predictors of college graduation were not good high school grades or test scores, but whether or not a student had an intense academic experience in high school. Such experiences were produced by taking higher-level math and English courses and struggling with the demands of college-level courses like AP or IB. ”
- Newsweek reporter Jay Matthews

YEAR  RANK     SCHOOL             TOWN

2009:  139      Riverside Brookfield, Riverside       
2008:  137
2007:  122
2006:  77
2005:  323

2009:  276        Hinsdale Central, Hinsdale
2008:  347
2007:  352
2006:  238
2005:  146

2009:  983      Glenbard West      Glen Ellyn 
2008:  971
2007:  688
2006:  641
2005:  699

2009:  1035      Glenbard East     Lombard  
2008:  1184

2009:  1103      St. Charles East      St. Charles     
2008:  1103


2009:  1167      St. Charles North      St. Charles  
2008:  1200


2009:  1223      Wheaton North      Wheaton   
2008:  1298
2007:  1056
2006:  1097

2009:  1242     Downers Grove North      Downers Grove  
2008:  1307

2009:  1318      Lyons Township      La Grange
2008:  1180
2007:  1179
2006:  1053

2009:  1394      Willowbrook      Villa Park 
2008:  1366

2009:  1418      Addison Trail      Addison     

2009:  1433      Hinsdale South      Darien
2008:  551
2007:  603
2006:  726
2005:  642