3 Phoenix-area high schools earn spots on Newsweek ‘best’ list

PHOENIX — Three Phoenix-area high schools have cracked a national news magazine’s 500 best schools list.

Newsweek rated three Valley high schools — Arizona College Prep Erie Campus in Chandler; Paradise Honors in Surprise; and Desert Mountain in Scottsdale.

Overall, six from the state earned spots.

The Chandler school earned the area’s best ranking, coming in at No. 166. Paradise Honors was No. 362 and Scottsdale’s Desert Mountain was No. 409.

The best-rated in the state was Tucson’s University High, at No. 44. Another earned top 100 status — Arizona Agribusiness and Equine Center in Prescott Valley.

Criteria for rankings included graduation rates and college-bound rates of students.

The magazine put together two lists:

“America’s Top High Schools 2015,” which ranks schools solely based on performance (our “absolute” list) and “Beating the Odds 2015,” which ranks schools based on performance while also controlling for student poverty rates (our ‘relative’ list).

The six Arizona entries placed in the absolute group.

Area secondary-education institutes placed on the relative list included Arizona Agribusiness and Equine Centers at South Mountain Community College and a sister campus in Avondale; Arcadia High in Phoenix and South Ridge in Phoenix.

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