By Jim Davis - Florida Catholic
MIAMI | Eleven schools in the Archdiocese of Miami rank among the top 34 Catholic high schools in Florida, according to a list released by Niche, an online school-rating organization.
Four of them made the top 10: Belen Jesuit Preparatory School, Miami, second place; St. Thomas Aquinas, Fort Lauderdale, fourth; Our Lady of Lourdes Academy, Miami, fifth place; and Immaculata-LaSalle, eighth.
The other seven archdiocesan schools on the Niche list are Archbishop Edward McCarthy, Southwest Ranches, 11th place; Christopher Columbus High School, Miami, 13th place; Chaminade-Madonna College Preparatory, Hollywood, 22nd; Cardinal Gibbons, Fort Lauderdale, 25th; Monsignor Edward Pace, Miami Gardens, 28th; St. Brendan High School, Miami, 29th; and Archbishop Curley Notre Dame, Miami, 34th.
The Niche list is the result of an evaluation of overall excellence at a Catholic high school. Factors include student-teacher ratio, school culture and diversity, and the percentage of graduates who go on to four-year colleges. Niche looks also at student and parent reviews.
Niche maintains a database of 1,222 Catholic high schools across the United States. Some of the statistics are the most recent available from the U.S. Department of Education, usually 2011�2012.
The original story inadvertently omitted the names of two high schools that were also on the list: Columbus and St. Brendan. It also incorrectly showed the ranking for Cardinal Gibbons.
