It is not unknown to the average MVHS student how prestigious the school is. We see the awards in the gym; we click on articles that rank the best high schools in America and spot our school name somewhere among the top 20. Despite the prestige MVHS has gained, however, students don’t seem to feel any different about the school.
According to Newsweek and its research partner, Westsat, public schools across America are ranked based on two standards; Threshold Analysis, where each school’s performance is judged based on their state’s standards, and Ranking Analysis, where all the statistics are judged: number of counselors, college acceptance and enrollment and of course, the SAT, ACT and AP test scores.
Even though MVHS has won a lot of awards, to most people, MVHS is still their local high school, where the competition is tough and getting enough sleep is even tougher.
Unemotional reactions are common among students when they hear about how high MVHS is ranked. There isn’t a dramatic celebration, nor are there cliche phrases of “All our work has paid off!” Because,all these things that helped get MVHS to where it is now — the percentage of graduates, the test scores — weren’t specifically intended to help the school maintain its academic prestige. Students don’t care about how their test scores benefit the school when they walk SAT testing room They just want to get a good score to qualify for their dream colleges.
Perhaps the only thing students care about was that MVHS beat all the other schools in FUHSD — especially Lynbrook, which came in 29th in Newsweek’s America’s top best high school 2016.
Students know MVHS receives multiple high rankings and awards, but sometimes there is a moment of disbelief when they see that MVHS ranks 16th in the nation. “Our MVHS? MVHS is that high in the nation?” we say to ourselves. However, the recognition doesn’t phase us. We are one of the best schools in the nation, yet we are still just MVHS, a high school in the suburbs that makes eight hours of sleep nearly impossible to obtain.
