French Settlement High Named Among

U.S. World & New Report’s Best High Schools in Nation

            LIVINGSTON, La. --- French Settlement High School has been named one of “America’s Best High Schools” by U.S. News and World Report, according to a release issued by the Louisiana Department of Education.

            French Settlement High School is among 31 Louisiana High School named in the report as being recognized with a gold, silver or bronze medal ranking.  The local school was one of 25 schools to earn a bronze medal ranking.  Five Louisiana school earned silver medals and one received a gold medal.

            “We are very proud of the day-to-day dedication of our faculty, staff, students and parents at French Settlement High School.  It is quite an honor for them to be recognized at this level,” said Superintendent Bill Spear.

            French Settlement High School is rated as a three-star school with the Louisiana Department of Education, and it recently earned the Recognized Academic Growth award for advancing its School Performance Score beyond the state’s expectations.  The school was recently awarded a School Performance Score of 107.7, which is up from the previous year’s score of 104.4. 

            French Settlement High School also has an 81 percent graduation rate and as of July 2009, the school’s ACT Composite score is 20.7.

            “It is an honor for our school to be named in this report.  Our faculty, staff, students, parents and community members deserve all the credit for making French Settlement High a great school,” said Principal Lance Hutson.

            The survey conducted by U.S. News and World report employed methodology developed by School Evaluation Services, a K-12 education data research company.  The report analyzed more than 21,000 public high schools using data from the 2007-2008 school year. 

A three-step process determined the best high schools.  The first two steps ensured the schools serve all students well, using state proficiency standards as the measuring benchmarks.  For the schools that cleared the first two steps, a third step assessed the degree to which schools prepare students for college-level work.

For more information on the U.S. World & News Report’s 2010 list of best high schools and to learn about the methodology used to evaluate the schools, visit www.usnews.com.