Pike Central Named "2008 Best Buy High School"
by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce for Fourth Time in Ten Years
December 2008
The Indiana Chamber of Commerce has released its 10th Indiana's Best Buys report, which identifies the Hoosier high schools offering the highest educational achievement levels for the lowest amount of tax dollars.
Of the state's 349 public high schools and charter schools with the appropriate available data, 132 were designated as a "best buy" based on in-depth analysis of academic success versus funding levels. Pike Central High School (Pike County) was selected as a "best buy" high school for 2008. This was the fourth time in ten years that Pike Central High has been named to the list. Years when PCHS was selected as a "best buy" school include 1999, 2002, 2005 and 2008.
Two methods determined this honor. A school was named a "best buy" if it had a quality index above the state median and revenues below the statewide median of $9,313 per student. The second method was by having a quality index ranking that was 20% higher than the school's revenues. From the "best buy" list, 23 high schools were also given the "honor roll" distinction for excelling academically despite having at-risk student demographics above the statewide median.
For their exemplary efforts, the top five schools from the "best buy" and "honor roll" lists were selected as "head of the class" members. The 2008 "head of the class" features:
Fourteen area high schools out of the 32 in southwest Indiana that made the list this year include, in alphabetical order:
Of particular note, Pike Central High School had the second highest percentage of at-risk students among the 14 southwest Indiana schools making the 2008 Best Buy list. Pike County and Warrick County were the only counties in the 12-county southwest Indiana area to have 100% of their high schools on the 2008 award list.
The new Indiana's Best Buys report and press release - along with past reports - are available at www.indianachamber.com/bestbuys.
All data used in the Best Buys report was collected from Indiana Department of Education databases.
This year, the Chamber further modified how it compared educational costs among schools. Last year's report examined total expenditures per student. In response to that, some schools noted that the accounting procedure for the Department of Education expenditure reports results in double counting of dollars that are transferred between funds. To compensate for that discrepancy, this year's report is determined by total revenues per student.
This latest edition of Indiana's Best Buys continues to include a broad range of school performance data and an emphasis on high school graduation rates for the calculation of each school's quality index. The AP measures and ISTEP+ Pass+ rates are an attempt to give schools additional recognition for their attention to higher performing students.
For those seeking additional information, the Indiana Chamber of Commerce can be contacted by members of the public at (800) 854-6880 or dredelman@indianachamber.com.