By ANNE LIMA

Daniel Pearl Magnet High School has once again been placed in the U.S. News & World Report’s annual list of best high schools.

DPMHS has moved up two percent with a national rank of 515 and a state rank of 108 since the last year. Principal Deb Smith said these rankings has increased the school’s enrollment by 30 students coming into the new school year, which means the school will be adding two additional teachers. This is a positive thing for the school, so what drives Daniel Pearl Magnet student body to reach their full potential?

“This has a lot to do with the teacher dedication and great student support. At Daniel Pearl we really try to make this a family atmosphere that’s full of support,” Smith said.

This family atmosphere seems to have definitely influenced the students to challenge their abilities in academics as we have an AP participation rate of 86 percent, Smith said.

If the students continue on this path of academic excellence and gain this sort of state and national acknowledgement, the school will continue to receive the Title 1 funding it needs to add another foreign language teacher into the school on top of the extra math teacher the school will be hiring, according to Smith. To continue striving in academics and increasing the school’s percent on U.S. News & World Report’s annual list of best high schools is there something the student body should improve on?

“The students at the school need to realize they can’t risk failing a class, especially since we’re only having six periods in the upcoming school year and summer school is difficult. They can’t just make up a class they need to stay on top of things,” Smith said.