October 18, 2016

Top 50 high schools in Philadelphia, suburbs ranked by state's latest School Performance Profile scores

New state scores mean new, improved rankings

By Jon Tuleya and Bob McGovern

Street View/Google Maps

This screen capture shows Unionville High School in East Marlborough, Chester County. Unionville scored highest in the 2016 School Performance Profile report recently released by the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

The state Department of Education last Thursday released 2016 School Performance Profile scores for all Pennsylvania schools.

Calculation of SPP scores had been put on hold last year for most schools to give teachers and students a year to adjust to the new Core Curriculum and realignment of the PSSA, or Pennsylvania System of School Assessment standardized test.

The 2016 SPP scores are the first to reflect middle and elementary school student performance on the more challenging PSSA. The Department of Education, at the direction of Gov. Tom Wolf, is currently working to make the standardized test-dependent SPP a "better, more holistic measure."

Performance in the following areas were used to calculate the scores.

Fifty percent of the school academic performance score is based on:

• Indicators of Academic Achievement – Including PSSA/PASA/Keystone test performance; industry standards-based competency assessments; third-grade reading proficiency and SAT/ACT college-ready benchmarks.

• Indicators of Closing the Achievement Gap – A two-part criteria. One part looks at the test scores of all students to define how well a school is making progress toward 100 percent proficiency. The second looks just at the test results of historically underperforming students to measure how well a school is making progress toward proficiency among those lower-performing pupils.

Forty percent of the score is:

• Indicators of Academic Growth/PVAAS – These measure the school’s impact on the academic achievement level of groups of students from year-to-year.

The final 10 percent is based on the following:

• Other Academic Indicators — These look at student achievement, such as graduation rates, promotion rates and attendance rates.

Schools can earn up to seven additional points via "Extra Credit for Advanced Achievement" based upon performance on state and industry assessments, as well as for students earning a 3 or higher on an Advanced Placement exam or 4 or higher on an International Baccalaureate exam.

The 2016 SPP report included scores for 134 high schools in Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties and Philadelphia. Below is a list of the 50 schools that earned the highest scores from the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

Lists of the top suburban Philadelphia middle schools and elementary schools can be found here and rankings for the city's public and charter schools are available here. Also. a searchable database of the reports for all the schools in Pennsylvania is available on the education department's website.

Rank	School	District	County	SPP Score
1	Unionville High School	Unionville-Chadds Ford	Chester	101.6
2	Wissahickon High School	Wissahickon	Montgomery	100.8
3	North Penn High School	North Penn	Montgomery	100.3
4	Spring-Ford Senior High School	Spring-Ford Area	Montgomery	99.7
5	Downingtown STEM Academy	Downingtown Area	Chester	99.2
6	West Chester Bayard Rustin High School	West Chester Area	Chester	97.7
7	Quakertown Community High School	Quakertown Community	Bucks	97.6
8	Springfield High School	Springfield	Delaware	97.1
9	Central Bucks High School-East	Central Bucks	Bucks	95.8
10	Haverford High School	Haverford Township	Delaware	95
11	Franklin Towne Charter High School	Charter School	Philadelphia	94.6
12	Downingtown High School West	Downingtown Area	Chester	94.5
13	Penncrest High School	Rose Tree Media	Delaware	94.2
14	Great Valley High School	Great Valley	Chester	94.1
15	Strath Haven High School	Wallingford-Swarthmore	Delaware	94
16	Perkiomen Valley High School	Perkiomen Valley	Montgomery	93.8
17	Harriton High School	Lower Merion	Montgomery	93.6
18	Council Rock High School North	Council Rock	Bucks	93.3
19	Upper Moreland High School	Upper Moreland Township	Montgomery	92.9
20	New Hope-Solebury High School	New Hope-Solebury	Bucks	92.8
21	Abington High School	Abington	Montgomery	92.5
22	Springfield Twp. High School	Springfield Township	Montgomery	92
23	Conestoga High School	Tredyffrin-Easttown	Chester	91.4
24	Pennsbury High School	Pennsbury	Bucks	91.3
25	West Chester East High School	West Chester Area	Chester	91.3
26	Council Rock High School South	Council Rock	Bucks	91.1
27	Palisades High School	Palisades	Bucks	90.9
28	West Chester Henderson High School	West Chester Area	Chester	90.9
29	Julia R. Masterman High School	Philadelphia	Philadelphia	90.8
30	Garnet Valley High School	Garnet Valley	Delaware	90.7
31	Downingtown High School East	Downingtown Area	Chester	90.3
32	Central Bucks High School-South	Central Bucks	Bucks	90.1
33	Souderton Area High School	Souderton Area	Montgomery	89.9
34	Kennett High School	Kennett Consolidated	Chester	89.7
35	Radnor Senior High School	Radnor Township	Delaware	89.7
36	Lower Moreland High School	Lower Moreland Township	Montgomery	89.3
37	Central High School	Philadelphia	Philadelphia	89
38	Plymouth-Whitemarsh Senior High School	Colonial	Montgomery	88.7
39	GAMP	Philadelphia	Philadelphia	88.7
40	Neshaminy High School	Neshaminy	Bucks	88.1
41	Upper Dublin High School	Upper Dublin	Montgomery	88.1
42	Marple Newtown High School	Marple Newtown	Delaware	87.4
43	Owen J. Roberts High School	Owen J. Roberts	Chester	87.1
44	Methacton High School	Methacton	Montgomery	86.9
45	Interboro High School	Interboro	Delaware	85.8
46	Upper Merion Area High School	Upper Merion Area	Montgomery	84.9
47	Phoenixville Area High School	Phoenixville Area	Chester	84.1
48	Academy at Palumbo	Philadelphia	Philadelphia	83.9
49	Arts Academy at Benjamin Rush	Philadelphia	Philadelphia	83.3
50	Ridley High School	Ridley	Delaware	83