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Newsweek Magazine Ranks SC Governor's School for Science and Mathematics Among Top 20 Public Elite High Schools for 4th Year

Submitted by: John Warner on Jul 08, 2009 at 12:48 pm Tagged with: Academia, K-12 education Source: South Carolina Governor's School for Science and Mathematics

For the fourth year in a row, the South Carolina Governor's School for Science and Mathematics (GSSM) has been named one of the Top 20 "public elite" high schools in the nation by Newsweek magazine. The Hartsville-based school is the only Palmetto State school selected.

Published June 8 as a web exclusive, Newsweek's list ranks America's 1,500 best public high schools. The news magazine's formula is designed to recognize schools that challenge average students through Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and/or Cambridge tests taken in 2008.

The system creates the need for a separate category for top-performing schools like GSSM, where most students earn exceptionally high SAT and ACT scores and enroll in rigorous, college-level courses.

"It is extremely gratifying to be named to this prestigious list," said Dr. Murray Brockman, GSSM president.

"Independent evaluation of the excellence of our students, faculty and staff by qualified observers at Newsweek is always welcome. What makes us feel best, though, is that even though we are already among the best, we are actively expanding both our size and our curriculum, and expanding internationally as well. The best is yet to come!"

GSSM, which recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, serves a high-achieving segment of the state's high school juniors and seniors who are passionate about science, mathematics and technology and who are motivated to increase their knowledge in these subjects. One of only 14 public, residential high schools in the country that specialize in science and mathematics, GSSM offers an early college experience to its students and allows them to earn college credits for many of their math and science courses.

Of the school's 56 students who graduated May 30, more than half will attend South Carolina colleges and universities in the fall. Notable out-of-state schools to be attended by GSSM graduates of 2009 include Harvard, Yale, Brown, Duke, Vanderbilt, Emory and Georgia Tech.