Oak Ridge High School is pictured above.
Oak Ridge High School has again been ranked sixth in Tennessee in an annual ranking of the best high schools in the state.
The ranking by U.S. News and World Report said ORHS is among the Top 1,000 high schools in the nation, ranking No. 894.
At 13:1, Oak Ridge High School has a smaller-than-average student-to-teacher ratio, and it is above the state average in college readiness and student proficiency in algebra and English.
The magazine said the Top 5 high schools in Tennessee are:
- Hume-Fogg Academic High School in Nashville,
- Martin Luther King Jr. Magnet at Pearl High School in Nashville,
- Merrol Hyde Magnet School in Hendersonville,
- Ravenwood High School in Brentwood, and
- University School in Johnson City.
The Top 3 schools remained unchanged from last year, and the Top 4 are in or near Nashville.
Oak Ridge finished ahead of Farragut High School (No. 8) and Hardin Valley Academy (No. 12) in this year’s ranking. ORHS has also finished sixth in at least two previous years.
Last year, Brentwood High School in Brentwood was ranked No. 4, and Ravenwood replaced Farragut in the No. 5 spot in 2013. Ravenwood moved up one spot this year, and University School came in at No. 5.
Oak Ridge school officials pointed out last year that the Top 3 schools are magnet schools, and Brentwood is located in what could be the highest-income county in the state, meaning the demographics could be much different than they are in Oak Ridge.
This year’s ranking said ORHS has 1,399 students and 104 teachers.
See the U.S. News and World Report ranking here.
More information will be added as it becomes available.
Rob Woodward says
Not sure how rankings are compiled or weighted, but there are 91 high schools on the list with a higher percentage of Algebraic proficiency and 89 high schools with a higher percentage of English proficiency.
Seems odd.
For instance, 92% of the students Farragut churns out are proficient in English compared to 72% at Oak Ridge and 76% of students at Farragut are proficient in Algebra compared with only 65% at ORHS. The rankings seem to be weighted toward the schools with the highest number of successful AP test takers (college readiness?). The numbers seem to bear out what many have been saying for years here: Oak Ridge does a great job with the accelerated students, but struggles with the middle and lower ends of the educational spectrum.
Harry Pruitt says
Pretty much on target. Never heard of cutting AP classes during budget deliberations, just preschool bus service, reading teachers for those students struggling, teaching aides and that sort of thing. It’s in Oak Ridge’s DNA.
Mike Mahathy says
We must continue funding the schools to regain the best high school in TN. Budgets have been cut over the past few years (not keeping up with inflation).
Thank you Harry for your support.
Charlie Jernigan says
The middle and low end hurdles are compared before the accelerated students in the US News rankings. Here is their methodology:
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/articles/2014/04/21/how-us-news-calculated-the-2014-best-high-schools-rankings
It breaks down to 3 criteria, is the whole school better than the state average, is the disadvantaged population doing better than the disadvantaged state average, and is the AP average better than the AP state average.
It is clear that Oak Ridge has a school system that benefits all students.
Peter Scheffler says
From the data in the ranking table and the explanation of the method for calculating the ranking, It does look to me that OR does better at the high end (higher percentage passing the AP tests), but Farragut does better in the middle (higher overall algebra and English proficiency). So OR must do better on the disadvantaged end to be higher overall.
We do really dang well considering we are up against magnet schools and high income communities! Congratulations to the hard working students and thanks to the hard working teachers!
Jeanne Hicks Powers says
Great job for Tn ranking….. now try to step up even more to national rankings! ORHS is going in the right direction.
Mark Caldwell says
Congratulations ORHS! I’m proud to be a citizen of Oak Ridge.
John Clark says
It would seem difficult to me to continue to attain this ranking if there really was a “culture of terror” present at the high school. We should be proud that we have a high school (and school system) that presents wonderful opportunities for students.
Donna Lewis says
I’m so glad that Borchers and Marczak are here otherwise this might never have happened. Thanks to STEM and discovery ed, ORS is finally becoming a good school district. I shudder to imagine what it may have been like before them. Ever since we became stem the school district has won countless of awards in student math and science competitions. They sure have had a swift impact. Even the basketball team got to state after borchers and marczak took the helm. As someone who just moved here, these guys and the schools in general have really impressed.
John Clark says
Interesting. Borchers and Marczak have not even been here a year and they get credit for everything? Even the success of something (STEM) that hasn’t even yet been implemented? Since you say you are new here, perhaps you can be forgiven for your lack of knowledge about the Oak Ridge school system. Maybe you didn’t notice that this is the THIRD year that ORHS has been on the subject list. ORHS routinely turns out more National Merit Scholars than most of the surrounding high schools. In 2005 they fielded a team that won the regional Siemans science competition and placed 4th nationally. In 2006, a team from ORHS WON the national Siemans competition, and it was the first time that ANY high school in the United States had placed a team in the national finals in two succesive years. I’ve known kids who have gotten full academic scholarships to places like Vanderbilt and Duke and others who have been able to graduate from college in just 3 years because of AP credits and dual-enrollment credits earned at ORHS. Borchers and Marczak have taken over an overall superb operation that would be the envy of most systems in the state. Let’s hope they don’t mess it up.
bill bradley says
Donna: let’s step back a moment. OR schools have always been essentially a stem program…it’s what we’ve done for years. I don’t shutter at all, and really that’s a slap in the face of every OR administrator, teacher, and student who’ve excelled for years. I’m not sure where you may have received conflicting information (and it appears you may have), but again, as far as I know, no one has “shuttered” to imagine what the schools were like before. We may not be perfect, but schools here have set a standard that others have only hoped to achieve. We expect more, we demand more, and we usually achieve it. As far as discovery ed, I’m not sure it’s even been deployed yet. And if you listen to high school teachers, they have a fair amount of concerns with it. I’m not trying to be combative with you at all. The previous administration(s) weren’t too shabby either!!
Dave Smith says
On the one hand, I’m in agreement with your assessment of the history of excellence in the OR School System. On the other hand, I perceived Donna’s comments as needless sarcasm.
Dave Smith says
I should add that I think she was attempting to make the same point as you, albeit in a more indirect manner.
bill bradley says
you may very well be right…I may have missed the sarcasm, if that’s what it was.
And just to fan the flames a bit, I somehow have overlooked any “council members” comments. I would think, in the name of fairness, if you’re going to proclaim that the sky is falling, that teachers are leaving in droves, etc. you’d somehow have the professionalism to step up to the plate and congratulate all those administrators and teachers who remain on the scene.
Cindy McCullough says
I believe the high school is moving stem, but it isn’t currently stem at all. That is at least my understanding. From what I have seen with my son at the high school, they do not have an emphasis on science and technology education at the moment. They have a very minimal computer science department. The sciences do seem to have a bit more, but not quite sure how much, as most students seem to take the regular required courses, biology, chemistry and not sure what next… All schools have those, so not sure they have more science than most. Did receive a notice on this new boy scouts stem program that they are starting. Haven’t really seen stem at the high school yet, though. And yes, Borchers has not made huge changes at the school yet, but he has only been there this school year. The school wasn’t awful before he came or any such thing. Seems to me Donna doesn’t know what it was like at the High School until recently. I take it she is new to the area, as I am.