Newsroom
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC— U.S. News & World Report today announced the 2016 Best High Schools rankings, highlighting top-performing public schools on a state and national level. U.S. News collaborated with RTI International to research and produce the rankings.
The School for the Talented and Gifted in Dallas, Texas, earned the No. 1 spot nationally for the fifth straight year, followed by BASIS Scottsdale at No. 2 and BASIS Tucson North at No. 3, both in Arizona.
Researchers at RTI helped collect and analyze the data behind the rankings using the U.S. News methodology, which combined four aspects of school performance: (1) the performance of all students on state assessments in reading and mathematics; (2) the performance of disadvantaged student subgroups on these assessments; (3) the school’s graduation rate; (4) and the rates at which high school students participate in and perform well on Advanced Placement ® (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) tests. The rankings include data on more than 21,500 public high schools.
“A high school education is imperative for success in both college and a career, and a school’s graduation rate is a key indicator of whether students are being effectively prepared for both paths,” said Anita Narayan, managing editor of Education at U.S. News. “The 2016 Best High Schools rankings provide students and parents with data-driven information on public schools to help them make better-informed decisions about their education.”
U.S. News differentiates high schools with gold, silver and bronze medals, using gold medals to indicate the greatest level of college readiness. In this year’s edition of Best High Schools, 6,218 schools received medals. Maryland, Connecticut and California claim the highest percentage of top-performing high schools that received gold or silver medals. A state-by-state breakdown is available here.
Along with the national rankings, U.S. News released new Best STEM Schools, Best Charter Schools, Best Magnet Schools and individual statewide rankings.
The U.S. News Best High Schools website includes data assembled by RTI for thousands of schools. For more information about Best High Schools and to view the full list of rankings, visit www.usnews.com/highschools.
Benjamin Dalton, Ph.D., a senior education research analyst at RTI International, led the data collection and analysis for RTI International.
Media contact: Enxhi Myslymi, Education-PR@usnews.com.
