Newsweek Magazine has ranked Palmetto Senior High School as the 37th best public high school in the United States in preparing students for college.

Janet Hupp

Newsweek, in an article to be published in the March 13 issue, released its list of the 450 best public high schools in the U.S. after studying more than 22,500 schools across the country. The schools were graded on a formula devised by Newsweek analyst Jay Mathews, who used the total number of advanced placement and international baccalaureate tests taken at a school, divided by the total number of graduating seniors.

Under the formula, Palmetto's grade-ratio was 2.315, as compared to Jacksonville's Stanton College Prep, which graded out as the nation's number one school with a 4.324 ratio. Broward's Nova High School was ranked sixth with a 3.128.

"It's a tremendous honor," said Palmetto Senior High Principal Janet Hupp. "We know that this is a wonderful school, with a wonderful tradition, and we provide rigorous and challenging courses for students and we're very happy about it (the ranking)."

Noting that Palmetto had a total enrollment of 3,250 students ­ 640 of them seniors ­ in grades nine through 12, Hupp observed that the Newsweek ranking formula might be biased toward smaller schools.

"It seems to me that based on that formula, larger schools would be less apt to be at the top of the list, because certainly the number of students in the graduating class would be indicative of a smaller number in advanced placement, which is a very advanced curriculum," she said.

Hupp also took a swipe at Gov. Jeb Bush and his administration's 'A+ plan' for rating the state's schools.

"It's interesting to me that we're only a 'C' school by state standards, while nationally we're ranked near the top," she said.

In his Newsweek article, Mathews cites U.S. Department of Education research compiled by Clifford Adelman from 1980 through 1993, which he said indicates that rigorous, challenging high school courses are the best insurance that students will complete college; this in spite of the emphasis that college admissions officers place on high school grades, test scores and class rank.

"What matters instead is how rigorous and challenging students' high school courses are, no matter what grades they receive," said Mathews.