How Elsinore Schools Ranked In 2018 U.S. News Best Schools List

Southwest Riverside County 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, the areas top high schools of the year included Great Oak, Chaparral, Vista Murrieta and Temescal Canyon. No local schools earned gold.

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.

Here are the Southwest Riverside County schools who scored silver badges:

• Great Oak High | Temecula | Temecula Valley Unified
  • #136 in California Rankings, #816 in National Rankings
• Chaparral High|Temecula | Temecula Valley Unified
  • #356 in California Rankings, #1837 in National Rankings
• Vista Murrieta High | Murrieta | Murrieta Valley Unified
  • #410 in California Rankings, #2112 in National Rankings
• Temescal Canyon High | Lake Elsinore | Lake Elsinore Unified
  • #511 in California Rankings, #2601 in National Rankings

Here are the Southwest Riverside County schools who did not land on the rankings (click school name for full report):

• Rancho Vista High | Temecula | Temecula Valley Unified
• River Springs Charter | Temecula | Riverside County Office Of Education
• Susan H. Nelson | Temecula | Temecula Valley Unified
• Temecula Valley High | Temecula | Temecula Valley Unified
• Murrieta Mesa High | Murrieta | Murrieta Valley Unified
• Murrieta Valley High | Murrieta | Murrieta Valley Unified
• Tenaja Canyon Academy | Murrieta | Murrieta Valley Unified
• Keith Mccarthy Academy | Lake Elsinore | Lake Elsinore Unified
• Lakeside High | Lake Elsinore | Lake Elsinore Unified
• Ortega High | Lake Elsinore | Lake Elsinore Unified

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