SAUGUS — Pioneer Charter Schools of Science I and II were recently featured by U.S. News and World Report in its annual ‘Best High Schools’ ranking.
Pioneer Charter School of Science II (PCSS II), located in Saugus, ranked 14th in the state, and PCSS I, located in Everett, ranked 15th. The rankings encompassed the 378 public high schools in Massachusetts.
PCSS II was among eight charter public schools ranked in the Top 20 high schools in the state.
The school enrolls children from Lynn, Everett, Revere, Saugus and other cities and towns North of Boston in grades seven through 12.
“Our team of students, teachers and families work extremely hard all year round, and it’s gratifying to see their commitment recognized in this way,” said PSCC Chief Executive Officer Barish Icin. “We are proud to be accomplishing our mission to prepare our students for higher education and career success.”
The rankings were based on six categories, including college readiness, college-curriculum breadth, graduation rate, state-assessment proficiency, state-assessment performance (compared with what U.S. News predicted for a school with its demographic characteristics in its state) and underserved-student performance.
PCSS I and II received 97 out of a possible 100 points in the rankings.
“A great high school educates all students from different social and economic backgrounds, exposing them to challenging coursework on the path to graduation,” U.S. News said in its ranking. “The highest ranked public schools… are those whose students demonstrated outstanding outcomes above expectations in math, reading and science state assessments, earned qualifying scores in an array of college-level exams, and graduated in high proportions.”
PCSS II is a rigorous college-preparatory charter school with a mission to prepare educationally-under-resourced students for today’s competitive world.
Graduates have attended prestigious colleges including Stanford, Berkeley, Cornell, Brown, Williams, MIT and Harvard.
PCSS II has a 100-percent graduation rate.
The PCSS community speaks 30 languages and has family ties to 40 countries.
At PCSS II in Saugus, 76 percent of the students are minorities, 66 percent are high needs, 50 percent are low-income, 12 percent are English-language learners, and 12 percent have special needs.
To learn more about PCSS II, visit https://saugus.pioneercss.org.
