Lincoln Ranked as Top 10 Missouri High Schools

Lincoln College Preparatory Academy ranked seventh in Missouri High Schools according to U.S. News. Students participated in Homecoming pep rally in October. Photo Credit: Nathaley Morelas

Once again Lincoln College Prep is in the Top 10 ranking for Missouri schools with the number seven spot.

Lincoln College Preparatory

Lincoln College Preparatory is a high school located in Kansas City, Missouri making it a part of the KCPS school district. Lincoln largely focuses on preparing their students for college through their required classes as well as the different programs they offer.

When a part of Lincoln you have the opportunity to do a variety of different programs including Manual Tech, Early College Academy, and the International Baccalaureate program. Lincoln is widely known for its IB program, when at Lincoln you are required to do partial IB if you are not a part of a different program, meaning you have to take at least one IB class.

When doing full IB the graduation requirements are altered, any full IB student is required to do multiple IB classes, complete 150 community service hours, a CAS project and have 27 high school credits. To graduate from Lincoln any partial IB student must complete 100 hours of community service and obtain 27 high school credits. These requirements are an attributing factor to the high school rankings and what made Lincoln a college preparatory school.

Ranking

Lincoln was ranked seventh out of the 455 schools that had made the U.S. News Missouri high school rankings. Lincoln had a 99% graduation rate and a 56.4 college readiness index, these statistics are a prime example of the work Lincoln puts into getting their students ready for college or any other plans they may have after high school. 

When it comes to the rankings it’s important to look at what they can provide for the school and the students.

 “Our rank is important because it keeps LCPA on the map. It lets us know how we measure up to neighboring schools, and affirms our students’ and teachers’ dedication to a high-quality public education,” said Vice Principal Seth Oldham.

“Students can also use this ranking to convince colleges and universities that, due to their rigorous high school coursework, they’re ready to excel as they enter post-secondary institutions.”

“As a freshman teacher, it encourages me,” said Dr. Kevin Rider, Lincoln’s chemistry teacher. “Those who teach freshmen work hard to hand over sophomores ready to face the rigors of our curriculum.”

But not only are the rankings important for keeping the school on the map and for the students but the ranking is also important for the school’s administration.

“I can use it as a metric to see how the school is doing, if we stay at seventh next year we are stagnant, if we go down to eighth I can see what we need to work on and if we go up to sixth I can tell we are improving,” said Principal Shanelle Smith.

Overall the ranking is important to the entirety of the school and is also a sense of pride for the staff and students alike.

U.S. News

Each year for 40 years U.S. News has posted the Missouri high school ranking for best school in the state. Since 1983 U.S. News has been known for its academic rankings and is still widely known for their rankings today. In 2019 U.S. News changed their ranking system, in previous years they had solely used performance and participation in AP and IB exams to determine their rankings.

When the system was revised it began to use six different factors to determine the rankings, these factors were, College readiness, State assessment proficiency, state assessment performance, under-served student performance, college curriculum breadth, and graduation rate, these factors continued to be used for this year’s rankings.

This year’s list is composed of 455 high schools out of the total 718 Missouri high schools and was determined by the 2020-2021 school year. The top ten schools this year were, Metro Academy, Collegiate School of Medicine, Ladue Horton Watkins, Clayton, Kirkwood, Ewing Marion, Lincoln College Prep, Park Hill, Lafayette and last but not least Parkway West.