Decatur, DeKalb County Schools Rank In Top 20 List: U.S. News

DECATUR, GA — U.S. News and World Report has crunched the numbers for 2017, releasing its annual list of best high schools in the country, ranking the schools on national and state levels. One DeKalb County school was in the top five, while Decatur High School was in the top 20 on the list.

In Georgia, Columbus High School earned the title of the best high school in the state. Overall, the school ranked among the top 100 best high schools in the country (No. 83). DeKalb School of the Arts in Avondale Estates ranked second best in the state, followed by Savannah Arts Academy.

Other area schools on the list are: Chamblee Charter High School at No. 14 in the state and Decatur High School at No. 20 in Georgia.

In comparison with other states, Georgia came in 18th, with 14.3 percent of the state’s schools receiving silver or gold medals; U.S. News assigned schools medals for college preparedness, based on graduation rates and state test scores.

Eighteen high schools in Georgia were given gold medals by U.S. News, 45 received silver medals and 23 schools received bronze medals.

Best Schools In Georgia And U.S.

The top high 10 schools in Georgia are as follows:

1. Columbus High School, Columbus (National Rank: 83)
2. DeKalb School of the Arts, Avondale Estates (National Rank: 89)
3. Savannah Arts Academy, Savannah (National Rank: 111)
4. Davidson Magnet School, Augusta (National Rank: 118)
5. Walton High School, Marietta (National Rank: 204)
6. Fulton Science Academy High School, Alpharetta (National Rank: 248)
7. Cambridge High School, Milton (National Rank: 262)
8. Northview High School, Johns Creek (National Rank: 266)
9. Alpharetta High School, Alpharetta (National Rank: 304)
10. North Gwinnett High School, Suwanee (National Rank: 334)

Click here to see the full list.

See Also: 25 Top Georgia High Schools In 2016 U.S. News Rankings

The top high schools in the country are as follows, according to U.S. News:

1. BASIS Scottsdale, Scottsdale, Arizona
2. BASIS Tucson North, Tucson, Arizona
3. BASIS Oro Valley, Oro Valley, Arizona
4. School for the Talented and Gifted, Dallas, Texas
5. BASIS Peoria, Peoria, Arizona
6. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Alexandria, Virginia
7. Basis Chandler, Chandler, Arizona
8. Carnegie Vanguard High School, Houston, Texas
9. School of Science and Engineering, Dallas, Texas
10. Pacific Collegiate Charter, Santa Cruz, California

Click here to see the full list.

U.S. News Methodology For Ranking Schools

The 2017 rankings of best high schools identify the top-performing public schools at both the national and the state level and include date on more than 20,000 high schools. To be considered among the best, high schools had to pass a rigorous four-step process that sought to determine whether a school was serving all of its students and not just those who are college bound.

The first step determined whether students at a particular school were performing better than statistically expected for students in that state, factoring in percentages of economically disadvantaged students to identify schools. Schools that passed this step then moved on to step two, which assessed whether disadvantaged students performed at or better than state averages for the least-advantaged students.

For the next two steps, U.S. News looked at graduation rates and college readiness performance. To pass step three, high schools had to have a graduation rate of 75 percent or greater. For the 2017 rankings, the graduation rate reflect students who entered the ninth grade in the 2011-2012 school year. Finally, U.S. News calculated a college readiness index, which was the number of 12th graders who took and passed at least one AP test, divided by the number of 12th graders at that school.

To be ranked numerically nationally, schools had to pass steps 1-3 and have a college readiness index of 20.91 or above.

A total of 6,041 schools were ranked, 500 schools receiving gold medals, 2,109 schools receiving silver medals and the remaining 3,432 schools received bronze medals. Schools that received bronze medals passed the first three steps but were not ranked numerically in the national rankings. The state rankings were based on whether a high school received a gold, silver or a bronze medal and had a CRI value of 10 or higher.

Previously, only gold and silver medal winners were ranked numerically on the state level.
—By Feroze Dhanoa and Elizabeth Janney

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