Each year, all American schools are listed in National Ranking from best to worst based on the following criteria:
- College readiness (30% of the ranking): The percentage of 12th graders from the class of 2016-2017 who took at least one AP or IB exam during high school and the percentage of 12th graders who passed at least one AP or IB exam in high school. Passing is weighted three times more than taking.
- College curriculum breadth (10%): The percentage of 12th graders from the class of 2016-2017 who took a wide variety of AP and IB courses across the multiple disciplines and the percentage of 12th graders who passed them. Passing is weighted three times more than taking.
- Reading and math proficiency (20%): Measures how well students scored on state assessments that measure proficiency in reading and mathematics. Passing these assessments can be required for graduation. Examples of assessments include Smarter Balanced in California and STAAR in Texas.
- Reading and math performance (20%): The difference between how students performed on state assessments and what U.S. News predicted based on a school's student body. U.S. News' modeling across all 50 states and the District of Columbia indicates that the proportions of students who receive subsidized school lunch, are black and are Hispanic are highly predictive of a school's reading and math scores.
- Underserved student performance (10%): How well the student population receiving subsidized school lunch, and black and Hispanic populations perform on state assessments relative to statewide performance among students not in those subgroups.
- Graduation rate (10%): For the 2019 rankings, the graduation rate corresponds to the 2017 graduation cohort who would have entered ninth grade in the 2013-14 school year. The high school graduation rates were collected directly from each state along with the math and reading assessment data.
In the following link you will find more information about this year's best high school in the US.
