Schools
The 55 Best Maryland High Schools In 2018, According To U.S. News
U.S. News & World Report released its annual list of best high schools in the country. See how Maryland schools ranked.
Fifty-five Maryland schools ranked among the best in the U.S., according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2018 rankings of best high schools in the country. The highest-ranked Maryland school on the list was Winston Churchill High in Potomac.
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 medals with gold indicating the greatest level of college readiness.
Ten Maryland schools received a gold medal, 38 received a silver medal and seven schools received a bronze medal. The state-by-state performance rating was based on which states have the highest proportion of schools with gold and silver medals. Based on this metric, Massachusetts was the leading performer, followed by California and Maryland.
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“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.
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Here’s how Maryland’s schools finished according to place and medal in the 2018 rankings:
- Winston Churchill High, Potomac, (113) Gold
- Poolesville High, Poolesville, (116) Gold
- Thomas S. Wootton High, Rockville, (168) Gold
- River Hill High, Clarksville, (222) Gold
- Quince Orchard High School, Gaithersburg, (243) Gold
- Marriotts Ridge High, Marriottsville, (284) Gold
- Centennial High, Ellicott City, (391) Gold
- Eastern Technical High School, Baltimore, (418) Gold
- Towson High Law and Public Policy, Towson, (484) Gold
- Urbana High, Ijamsville, (488) Gold
- Western School of Technology and Env. Science, Baltimore, (517) Silver
- Dulaney High, Timonium, (534) Silver
- South River High, Edgewater, (550) Silver
- Glenelg High, Glenelg, (551) Silver
- George W. Carver Center for Arts and Technology, Towson, (560) Silver
- Liberty High, Sykesville, (608) Silver
- Barbara Ingram School for the Arts, Hagerstown, (611) Silver
- Huntingtown High School, Huntingtown, (612) Silver
- Century High, Sykesville, (637) Silver
- Clarksburg High, Clarksburg, (806) Silver
- Eleanor Roosevelt High, Greenbelt, (843) Silver
- Middletown High, Middletown, (921) Silver
- Oakdale High School, Ijamsville, (1051) Silver
- Reservoir High, Fulton, (1212) Silver
- Clear Spring High, Clear Spring, (1430) Silver
- Walkersville High, Walkersville, (1547) Silver
- C. Milton Wright High, Bel Air, (1565) Silver
- Baltimore School for the Arts, Baltimore, (1587) Silver
- South Carroll High, Sykesville, (1625) Silver
- Fallston High, Fallston, (1637) Silver
- Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, Baltimore, (1642) Silver
- North Harford High, Pylesville, (1715) Silver
- Patterson Mill High School, Bel Air, (1732) Silver
- Patuxent High, Lusby, (1736) Silver
- Catonsville High, Baltimore, (1743) Silver
- Bel Air High, Bel Air, (1914) Silver
- Aberdeen High, Aberdeen, (1933) Silver
- Loch Raven High, Baltimore, (1959) Silver
- Calvert High, Prince Frederick, (1974) Silver
- Baltimore City College, Baltimore, (2098) Silver
- Harford Technical High, Bel Air, (2224) Silver
- North Hagerstown High, Hagerstown, (2255) Silver
- Havre De Grace High, Havre De Grace, (2263) Silver
- Stephen Decatur High, Berlin, (2268) Silver
- Great Mills High, Great Mills, (2430) Silver
- North Caroline High School, Ridgely, (2503) Silver
- Snow Hill High, Snow Hill, (2511) Silver
- Western High, Baltimore, (2687) Silver
Bronze medal schools are not ranked by U.S. News.
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:
- BASIS Scottsdale (AZ)
- BASIS Chandler (AZ)
- BASIS Oro Valley (AZ)
- BASIS Tucson North (AZ)
- BASIS Flagstaff (AZ)
- Meridian School (TX)
- International Academy of Macomb (MI)
- BASIS Peoria (AZ)
- Baccalaureate School for Global Education (NY)
- Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (VA)
Click here to see the full rankings and for more insight on the data.
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