How Georgia Schools Are Ranked On Best Schools List

ATLANTA, GA — With the 2017-18 school year under way in some Georgia districts, and about to resume soon else where in the state, students and their parents can see how their particular school district stacks up against others in the annual Niche.com rankings of best schools and school districts in the country.

To arrive at the rankings, Niche looked at data from the U.S. Department of Education as well as test scores, college data and ratings collected from Niche users. The methodology for each category of rankings varied with some factors having a higher weight for certain categories over others.

The 2018 rankings released this month rank elementary, middle and high schools as well as school districts. Georgia high schools didn't fare well, with only six systems earning an A+ grade ranking among Niche's Best Best School Districts list, while none of the state's schools made the top tiers of Best Public High Schools In America. (SIGN UP: Get Patch's Daily Newsletter and Real Time News Alerts. Or, if you have an iPhone, download the free Patch app.)

Best school districts

In the best school district rankings, Georgia listings include:

• No. 1: Buford City Schools
• No. 2: Decatur City Schools
• No. 3: Forsyth County Schools
• No. 4: Oconee County Schools
• No. 6: Cherokee County Schools
• No. 8: Cobb County Schools

Gwinnett County Public Schools and Fulton County Schools both earned B+ grades, as did Cartersville City Schools and Marietta City Schools.

View Niche's full public high school rankings here.

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SEE ALSO:

• Georgia's Best Colleges: 14 Make Forbes List
• Best Graduate Schools In 2018: Which Georgia Schools Made The List?
• High School Graduation Rate Hits Record High in U.S., What About Georgia?
• U.S. News & World Report College Rankings 2017: Georgia's Top Schools

Best elementary schools

No Georgia schools made the top 25 public elementary school rankings, but several schools did earn an overall grade of A+ or an A. The only A+ elementaries are in Forsyth County — Big Creek, Johns Creek and Settles Bridge schools.

View the full Niche best elementary school rankings here.

Best public high schools

No Georgia public high schools ranked among Niche's Top 25 Best School Districts In America. But 24 of the state's schools received an A+ rating.

The state list includes these Top 5 high schools:

• No. 1 Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science and Technology
• No. 2 Northview High School in Fulton County
• No. 3 Columbus High School in Muscogee County
• No. 4 Walton High School in Cobb County
• No. 5 South Forsyth County

Find the full list here.

For the best school districts, academics grade was given the highest priority in the methodology with 50 percent of the ranking being based on this data. Niche calculated academics grade by using data from the Department of Education as well as data that was self reported by Niche users. Teachers grade accounted for 15 percent of the ranking while culture and diversity and parent/student surveys on overall experience both accounted for 10 percent of the ranking. The remaining 15 percent of the ranking was based on health and safety, resources and facilities, clubs and activities, and sports.(Click here for more information on how Niche calculates its rankings.)

Niche assigns a standardized score for each factor, which is then weighted before an overall score is calculated for each school district. The overall scores are again standardized and some districts are disqualified from receiving a final letter grade if there isn’t enough data. School districts are then ranked numerically and assigned grades.
What do you think of the rankings? Let us know in the comments below.
Image via Shutterstock
Feroze Dhanoa (Patch National Staff) contributed to this article