In coordination with North Carolina-based RTI International, a global nonprofit social science research firm U.S. News ranked nearly 18,000 public high schools nationally out of more than 27,000 reviewed.
U.S. News did this by summing their weighted scores across six indicators of school quality, then computing a single zero to 100 overall score reflective of a school’s performance across these metrics.
The overall scores depict how well each school did on a national percentile basis. For example, a school with a score of 60 performed in the 60th percentile among all schools in the rankings.
The rankings’ performance measures included student achievement on state-required assessments, graduation rates, and college readiness.
U.S. News also consided how well schools serve underserved students, participation and performance on Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate exams, curriculum breadth, and overall student outcomes.