U.S. News High School Rankings 2019: Here's How Montgomery Fared

BETHESDA, MD — Bethesda's Walt Whitman High School is among the top group of high schools in America, according to U.S. News & World Report's comprehensive ranking of the nation's high schools.

The report, published Tuesday, ranked more than 17,000 schools — an increase from 2,700 last year. Of those 17,000 schools nationwide, Walt Whitman snagged the 93rd spot. What's even better? The magazine considers it the best high school in the state of Maryland.

A handful of Montgomery County schools made the national list. However, Walt Whitman was the only high school in the district to make the top 100 this year.

Other area schools that were ranked include:

• Thomas S. Wootton High — Rockville
  • National Rankings: No. 125
  • Maryland Rankings: No. 2
• Bethesda-Chevy Chase High — Bethesda
  • National Rankings: No. 276
  • Maryland Rankings: No. 5
• Richard Montgomery High — Rockville
  
  • National Rankings: No. 357
  • Maryland Rankings: No. 7
• Quince Orchard High — Gaithersburg
  • National Rankings: No. 533
  • Maryland Rankings: No. 11
• Winston Churchill High — Potomac
  • National Rankings: No. 538
  • Maryland Rankings: No. 12
• Sherwood High — Sandy Spring
  • National Rankings: No. 641
  • Maryland Rankings: No. 14
• Damascus High — Germantown
  • National Rankings: No. 672
  • Maryland Rankings: No. 17
• Northwest High — Germantown
  • National Rankings: No. 967
  • Maryland Rankings: No. 24
• Wheaton High — Silver Spring
  • National Rankings: No. 1,025
  • Maryland Rankings: No. 26
• Montgomery Blair High — Silver Spring
  
  • National Rankings: No. 1,064
  • Maryland Rankings: No. 28

Click here to see the full list.

U.S. News & World Report is the gold standard for education rankings and is widely considered the global authority. Anita Narayan, managing editor of education at U.S. News, said the aim of the rankings is to give families more information about the schools in their district.

"By evaluating more schools than ever before, the new edition expands that focus so all communities can see which schools in their area are successfully serving their students — including historically underserved populations," Narayan said.

The factors considered in compiling the list include college readiness; reading and math proficiency; reading and math performance; underserved student performance; college curriculum breadth; and graduation rates. College readiness measures participation and performance on advanced placement and international baccalaureate exams.

The data also take into account school enrollment, student diversity, participation in free and reduced-price meal programs, graduation rates and the results of state assessment tests. U.S. News worked with the global research firm RTI International to rank the schools.

"We enhanced the methodology to provide an even more comprehensive ranking that is easier to understand and, therefore, more useful to parents and educators," Robert Morse, chief data strategist at U.S. News, said. "Now, each school's score correlates to its national percentile — a school with a score of 70 is in the 70th percentile and ranks higher than 70 percent of schools. Going forward, this methodology will allow for intuitive comparisons of a school's performance year after year."

The top 10 schools are home to 10 different states, demonstrating that a high-quality education can be found across the country, the report said. Those schools are:

1. Academic Magnet High School — South Carolina
2. Maine School of Science and Mathematics — Maine
3. BASIS Scottsdale — Arizona
4. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology — Virginia
5. Central Magnet School — Tennessee
6. Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science and Technology — Georgia
7. Haas Hall Academy — Arkansas
8. International Academy of Macomb — Michigan
9. Payton College Preparatory High School — Illinois
10. Signature School — Indiana

In the state-by-state performance, based on the number of high schools in the top 25 percent of national rankings, Massachusetts was the leader. This year, nearly half — 48.8 percent — of the commonwealth's high schools were ranked in the top 25 percent of high schools.

Maryland was second with 43.7 percent, followed by California, with 40 percent, and Connecticut, with 39.8 percent in the top 25 percent of schools ranked nationally.

Overall, only seven states had more than a third of their schools in the top 25 percent, and 20 states had 25 percent or more of their schools in the top 25 percent.

On the other end of the spectrum, 22 states had fewer than 20 percent of their high schools in the top 25 percent, and seven had fewer than 10 percent of schools in the top tier. South Dakota's schools finished at the bottom of the list since it was the only state that didn't give U.S. News permission to use advanced placement data in the rankings. Even so, 1.9 percent of South Dakota's schools finished in the top 25 percent of rankings.

U.S. News & World Report's list can be found here.