Adlai Stevenson, Buffalo Grove High Rankings: U.S. News & World Report

BUFFALO GROVE, IL - U.S. News and World Report has crunched the numbers for 2017 and has released its annual list of best high schools in the country, which ranks schools on a national and a state level. So, how did schools that Buffalo Grove students attend fare?

The recent report released Tuesday ranked Adlai Stevenson High School as the sixth best high school in Illinois and placed Buffalo Grove High School as the 16th best high school in the state. Wheeling High School did not earn a spot on the U.S. News and World Report's best high schools list. Schools are ranked based on their performance on state-required tests and how well they prepare students for college.

U.S. News and World Report found 90 percent of students at Adlai passed Advanced Placement tests and ranked Adlai at 71.6 on its college readiness index. The college readiness index is based on AP participation rate and results from the AP test. Adlai's graduation rate is 94 percent.

• SIGN UP: Get Patch real-time email alerts for the latest news for Buffalo Grove. And iPhone users: Check out Patch's new app.

Meanwhile, Buffalo Grove High, which has 94 percent graduation rate, received a 52.9 on the college readiness index. U.S. News and World report found 63 percent of Buffalo Grove students took an AP test and 79 percent of those students passed the test.

Compared to other states, Illinois came in 22nd, with 12.4 percent of the state’s schools receiving silver or gold medals.

The 2017 rankings of best high schools identify the top-performing public schools at both the national and the state level and include data 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.

The top high 10 schools in Illinois are:

1. Northside College Preparatory High School, Chicago (National rank: 40)
2. Payton College Preparatory High School, Chicago (National rank: 64)
3. Jones College Prep High School, Chicago (National rank: 110)
4. Young Magnet High School, Chicago (National rank: 132)
5. Lane Technical High School, Chicago (National rank: 156)
6. Adlai E Stevenson High School, Lincolnshire (National rank: 194)
7. Hinsdale Central High School, Hinsdale (National rank: 332)
8. Lincoln Park High School, Chicago (National rank: 350)
9. Prospect High School, Mount Prospect (National rank: 364)
10. Brooks College Prep Academy High School, Chicago (National rank: 398)

READ MORE ON PATCH: Best Illinois High Schools 2017: US News and World Report

Photo via Shutterstock