National academic honor goes to LHS

For the second straight year, Libby High School is receiving accolades on a national scale with inclusion in the U.S. News & World Report's 2010 America's Best High Schools list.

Libby was one of only a dozen high schools in Montana to earn the honor. LHS received a bronze star based on standardized test scores and academic performances of those identified as disadvantaged students.

Rik Rewerts, LHS principal, said more than 50 percent of students on campus fall into the disadvantaged category based on numbers in the free and reduced lunch program.

“We do a very good job of identifying students that need help and we have good interventions in place,” Rewerts said.

Libby for the second straight year is the largest school in Montana to earn recognition.

“We were very proud of the fact that we’re a large school that meets the criteria,” Rewerts said. “And it’s not Libby High School, it’s the Libby School District that deserves recognition. It goes all the way through (lower grades) … we just get the benefit.”

The news magazine has been ranking the nation's best high schools for three years. It looks at data from 21,000 public high schools.

The report uses a three-step process to determine the best high schools. The first two steps ensured that the schools serve all their students well, using state proficiency standards as the benchmarks. For those schools that made it past the first two steps, a third step assessed the degree to which schools prepare students for college-level work.

LHS passed the first two steps for the bronze star but did not meet criteria on the college readiness step, which is based on data provided by the College Board.

As a state, Montana ranked last nationally and no school earned the top awards. Besides Libby, others earning bronze stars were Big Sandy, Bridger, Cascade, Charlo, Choteau, Lincoln, Shields, Simms, St. Ignatius, Victor and West Yellowstone.