This year Camas High School was ranked as the 17th best high school in Washington out of 656 schools. It was also ranked as 1,145th best high school in the nation. This national high school ranking system is done by the people from the US News. They base their rankings off of many different criteria, including performance on state-required tests, graduation rates, and how well students are prepared for college.
This ranking means a lot to the staff and students of CHS. Jeffrey Snell, the superintendent of the Camas school district, comments, “In general, Camas High School is a pretty amazing school with talented staff that invest a great deal into their students. Our students are amazing as well. Every time I have the opportunity to talk with a student I’m always inspired by their learning and how they see the world.”
The students are even excited about this ranking. Ria Patel, a sophomore at CHS, believed that the reason Camas got rated so high was because of the different resources that Camas has to offer. She went on to explain that Camas has great leaders and teachers that help to guide the students in their studies. Patel then went on to say, “Overall, this means that Camas is a great school, and we should keep working hard to support each other and our educators so we could further succeed.”
Amanda Hutchins, a freshman at CHS, thinks that Camas was ranked so high because “Camas has a strong sense of community and it makes the kids feel more comfortable in the classroom.” Hutchins also believes that this ranking could help to give the students at CHS a sense of school pride.
Many of the criteria that are looked at to decide on the ranking are related to the Advanced Placement program. CHS has a large percentage of students who are enrolled in at least one AP class. According to the US News Best High School Ranking website, CHS has 54 percent of its students participating in AP programs. This ranking system also uses the graduation rates of the school to decide on how high the school is ranked. According to the same website, CHS has a 93% graduation rate, much higher than the national average of 84.6%.
The US News also bases its ranking off of how well the high school prepares its students for college. The high ranking of CHS illustrates how well the students at Camas are prepared for life after high school due to the talented staff at CHS, as Snell mentioned earlier. “We appreciate the recognition. It is one measure of an effective school. We also think there are a lot of other important measures. To me, the most important ones are related to students graduating prepared to do whatever they want to do next and for students to feel like they are an important part of the school community,” Snell remarked.
Overall, this ranking really shows how great of a school Camas is and recognizes that Camas is a very effective school.