A high school located on Ball State's campus was ranked No. 1 in Indiana, recognition that some say is overdue.
The Indiana Academy for Science, Mathematics and Humanities was rated by Niche, a research gathering site dedicated to giving information on K-12 school, neighborhoods and universities.
“We were finally recognized for what we are,” said Vickie Barton, executive director of the Academy. “We’ve known for along time that we were the number one high school in Indiana, we’re just glad that other people are finally hearing it.”
The Academy is a unit of Ball State’s Teachers College, and is located on the edge of campus just off of University Avenue. It’s a two-year residential high school for highly intelligent or gifted students.
Barton said since they are a two-year high school, the Academy didn’t have many of the statistics and criteria used on other rankings, so they weren’t as accurate.
Niche drew on student, alumni and parent surveys to determine rankings of the high schools.
Jeff Smith, the director of academic affairs, said this survey was more satisfying than others have been.
“It was nice to see that they finally looked at all the right things and we came out on top,” Smith said.
One of the categories Niche looked at to do their ranking was diversity. Culture and diversity counted towards 10 percent of their “grade.”
Niche Ranking Methodology
Since the Academy’s district is all of Indiana, Barton said they have a lot of diversity in their school. With only about 300 students, Smith said they have 55-60 counties represented each year.
“We have any religion that you could imagine,” Barton said. “I don’t know how many different nationalities, but a lot.”
She said looking at economics, they have everywhere from people who would be considered quite wealthly to those on food stamps.
“This school was created 25 years ago to allow everyone same opportunity no matter their background,” she said. “Other college prep schools are expensive. If you’re poor, you can still come to this school. If you’re smart, you get the same opportunities as everyone else here.”
John Marsh, the marketing specialist, said this ranking should help the Academy with getting their name out in the public.
“We’re the best kept secret in Indiana, we don’t want to be that way,” Marsh said. “We should be one of the best known [high schools].”
Blake Mellencamp graduated from the Academy in 2011, and is a senior English education major at Ball State.
"The Academy had enough influence on me that I want to go into teaching myself because I realize the value of great education and want to share that with other people," Mellencamp said.
He said at his former high school in his hometown, he felt bored, his grades were slipping and he didn't feel like he fit in with the other students.
"I was pretty shy and not confident in myself, but the Academy and being surrounded by like-minded people was better," Mellencamp said. "I felt challenged, the work wasn't busy work and it was actually stimulating and challenging."
Because the school was for gifted students, he said it also ensured that the teachers would pay attention to them, because at his old high school, he felt like they only paid attention to the under-performing students.
"We do lots of work that wouldn't have been available at a standard high school," he said. "And we go into college careers already with quite a bit of experience. Regardless of what field we go into and what we study, we are well equipped to make the most of our experience."
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