The NJ Department of Education has released school performance data for spring of 2014. The ten high schools with the highest combined SAT scores were all vocational-technical schools.
Vocational schools have evolved greatly in recent years. No longer are they focused on trade skills such as plumbing, cosmetology and carpentry. Today they offer specialized programs in bio-technology, medicine, engineering, computer science and math. Rather than serving students who may not wish to go to college, these vocational schools are attracting the top students in their part of the state.
Schools such as Bergen County Academies in Hackensack have a rigorous admission process. Students first take an admission exam covering math and English. A small percentage are then chosen for the interview round, after which the number of students admitted each year is whittled down to about 250.
As a public school, its funds come from the other public school districts in the county. Each school district is allowed to send a certain number of students in proportion to the size of the district.
Since Bergen Academies is drawing some of the top students from each district, its average SAT scores are quite high at 2129 – 3rd best in the state.
In comparison, the SAT scores for the highest ranking non-vocational schools in Bergen County are 1863 for Tenafly High School and 1785 for Ridgewood High School.
Of course staying in your nearby high school does have advantages for a student and his/her parents. The time spent commuting to school is much shorter. And the competition is likely to be less fierce – a student is likely to have better grades in the local school.
Vocational-technical schools are indeed a major asset to the state of New Jersey. Our best and brightest students are offered an environment in which they can take their learning to a higher level. And that helps them not only get admitted to better colleges, it gives them advantages competing within the college environment. This writer recently heard from a college student at a well-known science and engineering school that students from NJ were academically ahead of their peers.
For more information about Bergen County Academies, visit http://bcts.bergen.org.