By Phil Corso
Two Bayside high schools, along with eight others from across the borough landed in the annual Top 2,000 list put out by Newsweek and The Daily Beast.
But only two broke the Top 100: Townsend Harris High School in Flushing at 43 and Queens HS for the Sciences at York College in Jamaica at 73.
The America’s Best High Schools 2013 ranking compiles the country’s top high schools by assessing how prepared their students are for college, analyzing graduation rates, college applicants and test scores. All but two of the 10 Queens schools to make the list came from communities in the more northern part of the borough like Bayside, Flushing, Corona and Astoria.
Bayside HS was ranked 331 out of the country’s 2,000 best, with an overall graduation rate of 91 percent and a college-bound senior rate of 99 percent. Nearby Benjamin Cardozo HS also made the list at 1,153 with a graduation rate of 85 percent and college acceptance rate of 96 percent.
Both schools have enjoyed plenty of recognition and success over the years as part of one of the city’s most prestigious and celebrated districts: District 26, which includes schools in Bellerose, Floral Park, Oakland Gardens and Queens Village.
One district over, Flushing’s Townsend Harris topped all the borough schools in the listing at 43. The school aced a perfect 100 percent for both graduation rate and college-bound senior rates, the ranking showed.
In Jamaica, Queens HS for the Sciences at York College ranked second-highest in the borough at 73 with a graduation rate of 98 percent and a perfect 100 percent college acceptance rate.
Other Queens high schools making the Top 2,000 list of high schools throughout the country included Floral Park Memorial HS at 384, Baccalaureate School for Global Education in Astoria at 670, Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Astoria at 1,146, Academy of American Studies in Long Island City at 1,223, Thomas A. Edison Career and Technical Education HS in Jamaica at 1,658 and the HS for Arts and Business in Corona at 1,827.
A total of 194 schools out of the Top 2,000 came from New York state, the listing showed. The highest-ranked high school in the state captured the 22nd spot and was in Buffalo, where City Honors School at Fosdick-Masten Park had a graduation rate of 100 percent and college acceptance rate of 98 percent.
The ranking showed Kentucky’s Carol Martin Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science to be the No. 1 high school in America, with perfect scores for both graduation and college acceptance rates.
Reach reporter Phil Corso by e-mail at pcorso@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4573.
