HFCS Is Ranked One Of The Best

by Alex Brooks
This year, for the first time, the Hoosick Falls Jr./Sr. High School has made the US News & World Report rankings of the best public high schools in America. HFCS received a Silver Medal and was ranked number 1,680 among the 21,776 schools evaluated, putting it in the top 8% of the schools evaluated nationwide. It was ranked number 211 among the 1,165 schools evaluated in New York State, putting it in the top 18% statewide.
[private]The primary criterion for the rankings was proficiency on State assessments in Math and English, with special emphasis on the performance of economically disadvantaged students. This was then supplemented with an assessment of college readiness based on how many students took AP tests and how well they did on them.
To be awarded a Silver Medal, the school had to have a college readiness index above the national median. The national median was 16.3, and Hoosick Falls had a college readiness index of 20.4.  The maximum college readiness value was 100, which would mean that every student in the senior class has taken and passed (scored 3 or better) on at least one AP test. There were only 26 schools in the country that had a college readiness score of 100.
Gold Medals were awarded to 500 schools; 1,508 schools were awarded silver medals, and 2,869 were awarded bronze medals.
High School Principal Stacy Vadney said, “We’ve worked very hard to review our curriculum, to increase the rigor and depth of the material and to maintain high expectations for our students. We’re seeing significant improvement in student results on a wide variety of assessments.” Vadney said it takes the coordinated efforts of a lot of people to create this kind of improvement, including dedicated teachers, supportive parents and a lot of hard work from the students themselves. But the bulk of her praise was for the teachers. She said the teachers and the staff are committed to doing whatever it takes to make the students successful. “They are very willing to stay after school to help students. There is a lot of professional development. A lot of them do it on their own.”
She said the teachers have really embraced the challenge of the APPR (the new teacher evaluation system) and the common core curriculum, using it as an opportunity to improve their teaching. “I love working with these folks,” said Vadney.
On the day we spoke with her, Vadney had just come from an after-school curriculum workshop. “We’re talking about ways to improve our teaching practices to increase student engagement. I feel fortunate to be working in a school like this with a group of teachers who are so invested in improving their teaching,” she said.[/private]