On May 12, 2015, U.S. News & World Report released its 2015 High School Rankings, placing Bernards High School as 27th in the state and 478th in the country.

While U.S. News & World Report is a publication dating back to 1933, its ranking of the nation’s best performing high schools is a recent development, launched for the first time in 2007.

As published in its article “How U.S. News Calculated the 2015 Best High Schools Rankings”, the magazine sites three steps in deciding on their national rankings. First, the journalists at U.S. News & World Report look to see if each school’s students are performing better than the state’s average performance. After the perspective high schools pass this first qualification, the writers secondly look to see whether a school’s “disadvantaged students” are outperforming disadvantaged students within the state. Once the high schools pass these first two qualifications, the site then judges each school on the its “college-readiness performance”. From the national rankings, the state high school rankings are then directly derived.

Many magnets, charters, and academies precede Bernards High School on U.S. News & World Report’s New Jersey High School Rankings, qualifying Bernards as “one of the higher rated true public high schools”, says Principal Neigel. Of all schools listed on the state ranking, Bernards is situated as the 18th “true” public high school.

In addition to the U.S. News and World Report ranking, Bernards High School has furthermore achieved a multitude of other rankings and merits this school year. By NJ Monthly, Bernards was ranked the 15th high school in New Jersey; by Newsweek, Bernards was ranked as the eighth high school in New Jersey and 83rd high school in the United States. Moreover, Bernards was recently recognized by the AP District Honor Roll, which commends increasing access to AP coursework while simultaneously maintaining or increasing the percentage of students scoring a three or higher on the AP exams.

Having been listed for both the national and state high school rankings on U.S. News & World Report, in conjunction with other recently achieved merits, proves that the hard work and dedication of Bernards High School’s students and staff is paying off. “As always, we try not to put too much emphasis on rankings, but it is always nice to be validated as one of the best high schools around”, Neigel concluded.