By FELICIA FALLANO
Among many others, Malden High School has recently been named one of the top high schools in Massachusetts, as we are the 51st in the state and 1,205th nationally. MHS has been in a similar spot in the past, but the school is especially proud of this year’s ranking, which is only one spot away from the top 50.
MHS students walk into the school every year excited to not only achieve academic goals, but also to participate in programs that are offered such as sports, the arts, foreign languages, computer science, performing arts, and many more. MHS school also offers a variety of Advanced Placement courses, which have a reported 52 percent participation rate. Principal Dana Brown believes that the students at MHS, “want a good and safe school, and the majority of students are respectful to the adults here.”
The students succeed in keeping the school safe thanks to an exceedingly hard working and dedicated staff who go above and beyond to make sure their students have all the tools they need to be successful. Jenkins House Principal Diane Klibansky believes that MHS has, “phenomenal teachers who are willing to do anything for students.” Holland House principal, Marilyn Slattery says, “we believe that every student can learn and our teachers have high expectations, which makes the student work hard.” In agreement with Klibansky, Boyle House principal Christopher Mastrangelo also believes that we should continue with, “great instruction in classrooms and challenging curriculum. I see how hard teachers work and how much they care so much about our students.”
Despite the praise, no matter how successful a school may be, there is always room for improvement. According to Brunelli House principal Nathan Lamar, MHS’s “ranking is reflective of many of our strengths including our graduation rate and the number of students taking AP courses and passing AP courses.” However, he still sees, “many areas that we can work harder at,” such as the dropout rate, and increasing the average AP exam and SAT scores. Mastrangelo also believes we should, “continue to strive for better and improve in what we do.”
Despite grades being extremely important to students and staff members there are other factors that make MHS a great school, one of them being diversity. Klibansky believes that part of what makes MHS successful is the culture that has been established at MHS over the last 10 years.”
Known for always having a tremendous amount of school spirit, despite the high ranking, what matters most at MHS is the sense of community, dedication and hard work. Brown stated that he wasn’t surprised at the high ranking but he also does not, “put a lot of stock in rankings. Rankings are based on numbers and sometimes numbers aren’t based on people.”
Brown is more convinced that MHS is a great school not because of the ranking, but because students and staff , “do great things, have great kids, a wonderful staff that is hard working so even if [MHS was not]the 51st, [Brown] still [believes Malden has] a great school” and states that Malden students work hard to prove that MHS is a school which is successful beyond its ranking.
