KENNEBUNK – Newsweek announced its ranking of the top 5,000 STEM high schools for 2019, honoring excellence in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Kennebunk High School was slotted at No. 2,075.

Kennebunk High School was among four high schools in York County to earn a spot on the list. Berwick Academy came in at 840; York High School, 1,684; Marshwood, in South Berwick, 2,959; and Thornton Academy in Saco earned a 3,424 slot on the Newsweek list.

There were several other Maine schools on the list. The highest ranking was the Maine School of Science and Mathematics in Limestone, which came in No. 8 on the list of 5,000 schools.

Kennebunk High School’s STEM Scholar Program provides students the opportunity to earn a STEM Certificate upon graduation.  To qualify, school officials say students must successfully complete four years of college prep or math and science courses and STEM electives.

Applicable KHS courses and vocational courses have the identifier “STEM” after the course name in the Program of Studies which may be found on the KHS website.  These courses include Engineering I and II, Computer Programming, Python II, Solidworks, Robotics, Digital Graphic Design, Mechanical Design and Architectural Design, among others.

Newsweek partnered with STEM.org to rank America’s Best STEM High Schools. The list includes schools in every region of the country that offer skilled teachers who keep up with developments in these fields and who create dynamic learning environments to engage their students.

The top 5,000 schools were curated from STEM.org Educational ResearchTM using a proprietary scoring logic that took into consideration a broad set of quantitative and qualitative data inputs collected from the second quarter of 2015 through the third quarter of 2019. According to Newsweek, the purpose was to determine which primary and secondary institutions in America best offer students experiences in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics — as defined by the Congressional Research Service — while preparing them for post-secondary outcomes. Additional factors, including affluence and median household income, were taken into consideration in compiling the rankings.

“Children don’t realize it, but they’re natural STEM students,” says Nancy Cooper, Newsweek Global Editor in Chief. “We need to make sure that innate drive, curiosity, and creativity aren’t lost along the way. These high schools are helping to ensure America’s future in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics is in good hands.”

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