The New York State Department of Education recently named Jericho High School as a High Achieving Reward School.

Reward Schools are either schools that have high achievement or schools that have made the most progress in the state and do not have significant gaps in student achievement between subgroups.

To be identified as a Reward School, a school must:

• Be among the top twenty percent of schools in the state for English language arts (ELA) and math performance for both the 2013-14 and 2014-15 school years or be among the top ten percent of schools in terms of gains in ELA and math performance in the 2014-15 school year.
• Have made Adequate Yearly Progress for the 2013-14 and 2014-15 school years for all groups of students on all measures for which the school is accountable, including the requirement that 95% of all groups participate in the English language arts and mathematics assessments.
• Not have unacceptably large gaps in the student performance on an accountability measure between students who are members of an accountability group (e.g., low-income students) and students who are not members of that group.

In addition, high schools must have graduation rates above 80% to be a high achieving school and above 60% to be a high progress school and the percentage of students in the school who graduate with a Regents diploma with advanced designation or a Career and Technical Endorsement (CTE) must exceed the state average.  High schools must also demonstrate that their graduation rate for students who entered the school performing below proficient in ELA or math exceeds the state average.

Each Reward School will receive a certificate of recognition from the Commissioner.