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Fort Lauderdale High School

By: Sharon Aron Baron

One Broward County public high school made the top 100 “America’s Most Challenging High Schools” 2016 list by The Washington Post.

Fort Lauderdale High School ranks 57 in the nation and 13 in the state, due to their success on providing access to advanced coursework to all students. Fort Lauderdale High School is both a magnet and a mainstream school. Their magnet program offers a rigorous course of study in either pre-law or a Cambridge program that students from all over Broward County can apply to attend.

Tamarac resident Tara Piatek wanted her son Seth to go to JP Taravella High School, which was close to home, however, Seth had learned about Fort Lauderdale High School while he was an eight-grader at Millennium Middle School and wanted to go there instead.

“I actually fought him on it,” said Piatek. “My friend literally smacked me and told me to listen to him. She couldn’t believe how closed-minded I was which isn’t normal with me and education. We went to an open house, and I fell in love with the school.”

Piatek said she had a good feeling about the school and realized it was a perfect fit for her son.

“Principal Ribeiro encourage the students to get involved in the school clubs as well.”

Her son will be graduating this week with a 3.75 unweighted GPA and the college courses he has already passed will be applied to his studies at the University of Florida.

Coral Springs Charter School also is in the top 1oo. Coral Springs Charter School is managed by Charter Schools USA and the City of Coral Springs holds the Charter.

In all, 26 Broward County Public Schools high schools earned placement on “America’s Most Challenging High Schools” list of nearly 2,300, which annually evaluates all 23,000 U.S. public high schools based on the number of graduating seniors taking Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and Cambridge tests before graduation.

“Our high schools have raised the bar by providing opportunities for all of our students to enroll in advanced classes,” said Superintendent Robert W. Runcie. “If you challenge students, students will meet the challenge. We’re seeing this happen throughout our District, and this national recognition validates the work of our high schools and students.”

The list evaluates schools on how widely they provide access to Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB) or Advanced International Certificate of Education classes (AICE). “America’s Most Challenging High Schools” ranks schools through an index formula that’s a ratio of the number of AP, IB and AICE tests given at a school each year, divided by the number of seniors who graduated that year.

See BCPS high schools national and state rankings below:

“America’s Most Challenging High Schools”	National Rank	State Rank
Fort Lauderdale High School	57	13
Coral Springs Charter School Cypress Bay High School	59 131	14 30
Nova High School	248	53
McFatter Technical High School	280	60
Pompano Beach High School	354	75
Miramar High School	549	114
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School	592	119
Atlantic Technical High School	603	124
South Broward High School	694	132
Deerfield Beach High School	837	151
Stranahan High School	856	154
Western High School	879	160
West Broward High School	984	180
Cooper City High School	1021	184
J.P. Taravella High School	1183	208
Boyd Anderson High School	1289	223
South Plantation High School	1295	225
Monarch High School	1457	247
Coral Springs High School	1654	277
Flanagan High School	1744	288
Coral Glades High School	1937	314
Northeast High School	1970	320
Piper High School	1985	324
Plantation High School	2092	340
Hallandale High School	2164	348
Hollywood Hills High School	2184	351

Author Profile

Sharon Aron Baron

Editor of Talk Media and writer for Coral Springs Talk. CST was created in 2012 to provide News, Views, and Entertainment for the residents of Coral Springs and the rest of South Florida.