Banning Rises, Beaumont Misses In 'U.S. News Best Schools' List

Pass Area high schools received their latest report card Wednesday, as U.S. News & World Report’s 2018 rankings of best high schools in the country was released. Garnering a "silver" badge for performance, Banning High School rebounded in the rankings this year. Beaumont High School, however, did not earn any badges.

The 2018 best high school rankings were released on Wednesday and evaluate over 20,500 public high schools. U.S. News identified schools that best serve all students and assessed how prepared students are for college-level work. Schools are also recognized with gold, silver and bronze badges — online "medals" — with gold indicating the greatest level of college readiness.

“Top-ranked schools succeed in three main areas: exceeding expectations on state proficiency tests, offering challenging coursework and graduating their students,” Anita Narayan, managing editor of Education at U.S. News, said in a press release.

Banning High School earned silver for 2018, after earning bronze in 2017, data shows. Last year the school was ranked #514 in California, while this year it ranks #439. See full Banning High ranking information here.

"This is so amazing!" Banning High School Principal Matt Valdivia said in an email announcing the school's improvement on Wednesday. "This is so apropos that the announcement coincides with California's Day of the Teacher. I would like to give a shout out to all the teachers who dedicate their daily professional lives to serving our youth. It is your hard work, determination, and efforts 'in the trenches' to reach every student that reaps results like these. It is your direct hand prints that make Banning High School a great place to learn and work."

As for nearby Beaumont High School, it was not ranked this year after also earning bronze in 2017. Last year the school was ranked #556 in California, while this year it did not make the ranks of the top 606 schools in the state. See full Beaumont High ranking information here.

To determine the rankings, U.S. News teamed up with the social science research firm RTI International. A variety of data sources, including the Common Core of Data, College Board and the International Baccalaureate, were used.

A four-step process was used to rank all eligible schools. The first two steps were to determine whether students were performing better than statistically expected in the state and whether minority were performing at or better than the state average for minority students, which was the second step. The third step required schools to meet or surpass a certain graduation benchmark and the final step was to determine college readiness. (You can read the full methodology here.)

The top 10 high schools in the U.S. overall are:

1. BASIS Scottsdale (AZ)
2. BASIS Chandler (AZ)
3. BASIS Oro Valley (AZ)
4. BASIS Tucson North (AZ)
5. BASIS Flagstaff (AZ)
6. Meridian School (TX)
7. International Academy of Macomb (MI)
8. BASIS Peoria (AZ)
9. Baccalaureate School for Global Education (NY)
10. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (VA)

Click here to see the full rankings and for more insight on the data.

— Patch editor Feroze Dhanoa contributed to this report / Image via panitanphoto, Shutterstock.com