North Hills High School Named One of the Nation’ s Best High Schools
BY U. S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT
North Hills High School has been named one of the best schools in the nation and in Pennsylvania by U. S. News & World Report.
The high school was awarded a Silver Medal in the magazine’ s 2016 Best High Schools rankings where it was listed as No. 47 out of 676 Pennsylvania high schools. Nationwide, the high school was ranked in the top seven percent of approximately 21,000 public schools evaluated in the listing.
U. S. News differentiates high schools with gold, silver and bronze medals, using medals to indicate the greatest level of college readiness for students. In this year’ s edition of Best High Schools, only one out of three high schools in the nation received a medal.
The evaluation criteria included performance levels on state math and reading assessments, along with performance among economically disadvantaged students as compared to the state averages for those groups, and participation levels in Advanced Placement( AP) or International Baccalaureate( IB) programs and performance on AP and IB tests.
North Hills High School offers 27 of the 34 available AP courses. The AP Program is a nationally recognized, rigorous curriculum sponsored by the College Board. Most of the nation’ s colleges and universities award credit, advanced placement or both based on successful performance on the AP exams. Approximately 78 percent of North Hills AP students scored high enough on the AP exams, which are given at the end of each course, to earn college credit.
North Hills Alum’ s Photo Featured on a U. S. Postal Service Forever Stamp
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stunning star trail photograph comprised of 200 images taken at Mt. Rainier National Park by North Hills School District Class of 2009 graduate Matt Dieterich has been selected for a U. S. Postal Service Forever Stamp.
The photograph is one of 16 Forever Stamp images selected to celebrate the National Park Service’ s 100th anniversary this year. The stamp will be available to purchase nationally.
Dieterich captured the images for the stamp last June when he worked at Mount Rainier in Washington as an intern with the National Park Service Geoscientist-in-the-Parks program to educate the public on dramatic views of the stars and the effect of light pollution near highly populated areas.
“ This night was one I will never forget. After working with visitors at the Mount Rainier astronomy program on June 22, 2015, I noticed there was an aurora, so I drove down to Reflection Lake to capture it.
“ The location was perfect as it contained a view of Mount Rainier and water for reflections,” he continued.“ To create this star trails image I took 200 photos in a two-hour window between 2 a. m. and 4 a. m. with my Nikon D750 and 24mm lens set at F / 1.4
The district also partners with various area colleges and universities to provide 15 College in High School( CHS) courses, which offer collegiate-level material and the opportunity to earn college credits and receive a grade on a university transcript. Additionally, the high school offers six academic academies – The Academies at North Hills – that allow students to explore career fields and develop transferable skills through a focused curricular track. Participants are immersed in content that mirrors undergraduate courses at the college level.
In the past year, the high school was awarded an Excellence by Design accreditation from the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Elementary and Secondary Schools, one of the nation’ s top education accrediting organizations. The accreditation notes the high school as an institution that has engaged in a rigorous self-examination under the supervision of an experienced evaluation team and was determined to meet the highest standards of excellence.
The high school also was one of only seven schools in Allegheny County and 39 schools in Pennsylvania to be ranked in the Washington Post’ s America’ s Most Challenging High Schools listing.
Rankings are based on the Challenge Index, which calculates participation in Advanced Placement( AP) exams in order to evaluate the rigor of high school curriculums across the nation.
The full report can be found at www. usnews. com / education / best-high-schools
and ISO 5000. Since the Earth is rotating, each 8-second exposure shows stars at slightly different locations. When the photos are combined into one image the stars create a circular pattern around the North Star, which is just out of view at the top of the image. The pink aurora spread throughout the background sky. Mountaineers can be seen with their white headlamps climbing Mount Rainier on the right side of the volcano.”
He is a graduate of Robert Morris University with a bachelor’ s degree in environmental science and holds a master’ s degree in geology from the University of Pittsburgh. Dieterich is the owner of Matt Dieterich Photography and specializes in astrophotography. His work can be found at http:// www. mdieterichphoto. com. His goal is to inspire others to get outside and enjoy the night sky, especially children who have grown up in large cities. Dieterich believes that viewing the night sky away from city lights is a powerful human experience that helps children dream. orth Hills School District
NORTH HILLS SCHOOL DISTRICT NEWS
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