By Kendra Caruso | May 25, 2021
BELFAST — U.S. News and World Report ranked Belfast Area High School as the seventh-best high school in the state in its Best High Schools rankings for 2021. Regional School Unit 71 Superintendent Mary Alice McLean said in an email update that it is the first time the school has made it into the top 10.
Principal Jeff Lovejoy thinks the school's robust offering of advanced placement courses helped it stand out in U.S. News' evaluation. BAHS offers many AP courses and has a lot of students in those courses, 70% of whom scored well on AP college entrance exams.
“For a school our size, what we can offer to a student is pretty well-rounded, whether it's music, theater, athletics, academics. I’m proud of what we can offer kids,” he said. “… We’re not sitting on our laurels, we’re really bringing in new programs.”
Courses offered include a marine studies class co-taught by a social studies teacher and a science teacher, theater arts and projects in engineering, among other courses in various subjects, he said. The district finds creative ways to add more courses without adding more staff.
The school has just under 500 students, Lovejoy said, and class sizes range from 26 students to just a few. He thinks the district attracts a competitive and unique teaching staff, with members who bring to the classroom life experiences outside of teaching. For example, one teacher who has a background in journalism hopes to develop a journalism class in the future.
The ranking is based on data from the 2020 school year in areas like college readiness, math and reading proficiency, math and reading performance, underserved student performance, college curriculum breadth and graduation rate, McLean said.
U.S. News ranks the majority of American high schools, according to its website, working with a North Caroline-based nonprofit to rank about 17,860 public high schools out of almost 24,000 it reviews. It gives each school a 0-100 score based on calculations using six school-quality indicators.
The magazine does not collect data directly from schools; rather it uses third-party sources including the United States Department of Education, state education agencies, The College Board and International Baccalaureate.
Maine schools ranked higher than Belfast include Greely High School in Cumberland, Kennebunk High School in Kennebunk, Falmouth High School in Falmouth, Cape Elizabeth High School in Cape Elizabeth, Baxter Academy for Tech and Sciences in Portland, and Southern Aroostook School in Dyer Brook, in respective order.