An annual high school ranking has put six Fairfax County Public Schools in the top 10 of the state. Shocker, South Lakes wasn’t up there. Our school placed much lower, 64th out of a total of 336 Virginia high schools. While it is not surprising that South Lakes is ranked lower than Thomas Jefferson, a highly funded and widely known magnet school, it is still disappointing that we are ranked so much lower than others in the county. So, the big question: What caused South Lakes to be ranked this way, and what can we do to improve our scores?
These rankings come from the U.S. News & World Report, an American journalism company. Their rankings are updated yearly, ordering every high school in the nation based on 6 factors. These factors include college readiness (how many seniors took IB/AP exams), college curriculum breadth (how many students took multiple IB/AP exams), state assessment proficiency, state assessment performance, underserved student performance, and graduation rate. For more information about how the schools get ranked, visit the U.S. News’ article on their ranking process.
So what could boost South Lakes’ rank on the charts? Well, we could use some help in nearly all of the categories, with the exception of graduation rates. With a 96% graduation rate, we are on par with other schools in this ranking. While that may not be a concern, we do need some help with our college readiness, which is measured by the IB/AP program participation rate. All the FCPS schools in the top 10 had, at minimum, a 70% AP participation rate. This is a large margin higher than the 53% IB participation rate at South Lakes. (IB and AP participation rates are comparable by US news in these rankings) The other factors that South Lakes could improve in are reading, mathematics and science comprehension rates according to state assessments. All three sit from 50-75%, with math being the lowest score and science coming in at the highest. South Lake’s reading comprehension scores sit in the middle at 61%.
The full list of FCPS schools ranking within the top 10 in Virginia include:
#1- Thomas Jefferson High School
#4- McLean High School
#5- Langley High School
#6- Oakton High School
#9-Marshall High School
#10-W.T. Woodson High School
While our score on the ranking isn’t terrible, it could certainly be better. This is a call to action for the South Lakes community and administration to improve the services offered at SLHS.
