In addition to being ranked by US News & World Report as one of America's best high schools, recently one of America's most popular magazine's ranked ECVTS Bloomfield Tech campus as one of the best high schools in America as well. Businessweek magazine recently did a study to be published in their February nationwide publication in partnership with Greatschools.net of America's best high schools in a state by state analysis.

 

Out of hundreds of schools Bloomfield Tech was chosen as one of the three best in the state and it also sits atop thousands of other low-income schools in the country.

 

Click Here to See the Business Week Main Page Article on the Best High Schools in the Nation

 

Click Here to See the three NJ Schools chosen out of the hundreds in the State

 

 

New Jersey

 

Best Overall Academic Performance: Bergen Academies-Hackensack
Town: Hackensack
GreatSchools rating: 10/10
Click here for more info.

Best Low-Income: Essex County Vocational - Bloomfield Tech
Town: Bloomfield
GreatSchools rating: 5/10
Click here for more info.

Best Improved: Cicely Tyson School
Town: East Orange
GreatSchools rating: 2/10
Click here for more info.

 

BusinessWeek.com worked with GreatSchools, a San-Francisco-based nonprofit organization that rates schools and provides an online community for parents, and came up with the best high schools in each state in a number of different categories. We identified the best overall public high school in terms of test scores, the best public high school with an economically disadvantaged population, and the best improved public high school. In addition, we also offer the top public and private school in each state that parents rated the highest on the GreatSchools.net Web site. However, it is important to note that these last two categories are determined purely by parent participation and does not accurately represent the standing of the school; schools that received the most recommendations scored highest.

 

In Oklahoma, the school with the best overall performance also happens to be the best low-income school. Despite the demographic challenges, 100% of students at the Dove Science Academy, a publicly funded charter school for grades 6 to 12 in Oklahoma City, were accepted to college last year. Its test scores were the highest in the state.

About 90% of the 481 students at Dove Science Academy qualify for free or reduced school lunch, and 60% come from families where English is not the first language, said assistant principal/dean of students Marc Julian.

 

The school, founded by a group of educators in the 2001-02 season in an old office building on a busy Oklahoma City street, has strict policies for both students and teachers. Students wear uniforms, and the focus is decidedly on academics. Students have two or three hours of homework each day. And the school has neither an ROTC nor a football team (It began offering varsity soccer and basketball only in the past few years).

 

The kids are required to stay an extra hour and—if necessary—come in on Saturdays if they fail practice tests given monthly in preparation for the statewide exams. Admission is decided by lottery and, unlike a number of top schools on the list, does not require an admission test. The best students are rewarded with an annual trip to Europe and Turkey for which they pay just a few hundred dollars.

 

Teacher salaries are based on merit not pay scales (There is no union). This year's valedictorian, Jason Lugo, 17, said his success had a lot to do with the dedication of the teachers who have come to his home—even on weekends—for free one-on-one tutoring at the kitchen table. Lugo, the son of Mexican immigrants, will be the first in his family to go to college. His father works at a dry cleaner, and his mother works on an air-conditioner assembly line. In college, he plans to major in finance and international business with a minor in political science, and then launch a financial consulting business. He hopes to later move into politics. "Maybe, the first Hispanic President of the U.S.," Lugo said. "Hey, Barack Obama did it, now anybody else can."


Editor's Note: The Best Overall Academic Performance: , Best Low-Income, and Best Improved schools were selected based on the most recent available state math, reading, and science standardized test scores for public schools. Math and reading were weighted twice as heavily as science. The schools with the Best Overall Academic Performance: had the best weighted test scores. The Best Low-Income school in each state had the highest weighted test score of the most economically disadvantaged schools. The Best Improved school is the school in each state that had the biggest weighted test score improvement compared to the previous year. The Parent's Choice schools are based on ratings given to the schools by visitors to the GreatSchools Web site. Choices were primarily limited to schools with at least 10 ratings, except in states where none of the schools met that threshold. The list included only schools with at least 100 students or a student population of half the median enrollment of all high schools in the state.