By Stephanie Sorrell-White, Telegram Staff Writer. Posted Aug. 4, 2015: www.littlefallstimes.com

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Little Falls High School recently received the Silver Award for high schools from U.S. News and World Report. TIMES TELEGRAM PHOTO/STEPHANIE SORRELL-WHITE

 LITTLE FALLS — Little Falls High School recently earned national recognition in a high school ranking.

U.S. News and World Report gave the high school its Silver Award.

Little Falls ranked 2,187 on a national level and 196 on the state level.

The overview about the school states, “students have the opportunity to take Advanced Placement course work and exams. The AP participation rate at Little Falls High School is 30 percent.  The student body makeup is 52 percent male and 48 percent female and the total minority enrollment is 5 percent.”

It also states the number of students enrolled is 357, with about 40 percent who are economically disadvantaged.  The school has 29 full-time teachers. There is a 12:1 student-teacher ration at the school.  Its college readiness index is 22.9, and 85 percent of the students are proficient in English and 81 percent are proficient in math.

The report calculates these values based on student performance on state exit exams and internationally available exams on college-level course work.

“The key to our high school earning this recognition, which it has done in the past, is the following course offerings our students have and take advantage of,” said district Business Manager Clete McLaughlin in an email Tuesday.

He listed the school’s Advanced Placement courses such as Calculus I, Calculus II, Chemistry, Biology, United States History and Studio Art.  He also listed the school’s College Now courses, which include English Composition and Literature, Government/Economics, Western Civilization I, Western Civilization II, Pre-Calculus, Calculus I, Calculus II, Accounting I, Business Law and Introduction to Psychology.

McLaughlin said the school offers “an impressive list of advanced level courses to our students.  Many of our seniors have graduated with a full year of college credit already earned.”

“Over the past several years, as schools all across New York state have struggled under financial pressures, we remained committed to maintaining, and in some cases expanding, our AP and College Now offerings,” said McLaughlin. “This, I believe, is a reflection of the importance our district and community places on providing a quality education and is something we are very proud of.”

New York has hundreds of schools in the 2015 U.S. News Best High Schools rankings, including 58 gold medal schools.