U.S. News Best High Schools 2019: Maryland Schools Make List

There are 239 Maryland schools among the best high schools in America, U.S. News & World Report said Tuesday in its most comprehensive ranking yet of the nation’s high schools. More than 17,000 schools are ranked, an increase from 2,700 last year.

Massachusetts was the leader among states with the number of high schools in the top 25 percent of national rankings, with 48.8 percent of its high schools ranked in that tier.

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.

No. 1 among Maryland schools was Walt Whitman High School, which ranked No. 93 nationally in the 2019 U.S. News Best High Schools rankings. It also ranked 145th among the nation's best STEM schools in the U.S.

Here are the top 50 schools in Maryland, according to U.S. News, followed by national rank:

1. Walt Whitman High, Montgomery County Public Schools, Bethesda; No. 93 in U.S., 145 in STEM
2. Thomas S. Wootton High, Montgomery County Public Schools, Rockville; 125; 88 in STEM
3. Eastern Technical High School, Baltimore County Public Schools, Essex; 185; 49 in magnet
4. River Hill High, Howard County Public School System, Clarksville; 245; 89 in STEM
5. Bethesda-Chevy Chase High, Montgomery County Public Schools, Bethesda; 276
6. Western School of Technology and Environmental Science, Baltimore County Public Schools, Catonsville; 339; 71 in magnet
7. Richard Montgomery High, Montgomery County Public Schools, Rockville; 357; 75 in magnet
8. George W. Carver Center for Arts and Technology, Baltimore County Public Schools, Towson; 374
9. Hereford High, Baltimore County Public Schools, Parkton; 463
10. Barbara Ingram School for the Arts, Washington County Public Schools, Hagerstown; 467
11. Quince Orchard High School, Montgomery County Public Schools, Gaithersburg; 553
12. Winston Churchill High, Montgomery County Public Schools, Potomac; 538
13. Towson High Law and Public Policy, Baltimore County Public Schools, Towson; 613
14. Sherwood High, Montgomery County Public Schools, Sandy Spring; 641
15. Centennial High, Howard County Public Schools, Ellicott City; 644
16. South River High, Anne Arundel County Public Schools, Edgewater; 660
17. Damascus High, Montgomery County Public Schools, Damascus; 672
18. Dulaney High, Baltimore County Public Schools, Timonium; 680
19. Liberty High, Carroll County Public Schools, Sykesville; 698
20. Urbana High, Frederick County Public Schools, Ijamsville; 754
21. Glenelg High, Howard County Public School System, Glenelg; 836
22. Chesapeake Science Point, Anne Arundel County Public Schools, Hanover; 866
23. Baltimore School for the Arts, Baltimore City Public Schools, Baltimore; 933
24. Northwest High, Montgomery County Public Schools, Germantown; 967
25. St. Michaels Middle/High School,Talbot County Public Schools, St. Michaels; 1,008

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 in a news release.

Overall, Maryland schools graduate 95.1 percent of students.

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

The data also take into account school enrollment, student diversity, participation in free and reduced-price meal programs 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 in a news release. “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 in 10 different states, demonstrating that a high-quality education can be found across the country, the report said. Here are the top 10, according to U.S. News:

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

Several of those were also included among rankings for specialized schools.

The top five schools nationally for an education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, are as follows:

1. High Technology High School, New Jersey
2. BASIS Scottsdale, Arizona
3. BASIS Peoria, Arizona
4. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Georgia
5. The Early College at Guilford, North Carolina

Here are the Maryland schools ranked among the top for STEM nationally, according to U.S. News:

• Thomas S. Wootton High, Rockville; No. 88
• Walt Whitman High, Bethesda; No. 145
• River Hill High School, Clarksville; No. 89

Charter and magnet schools performed well in the rankings, U.S. News said. Within the top 5 percent of ranked schools, a third are either charter or magnet. In the national rankings, more than 18 percent are charter schools, and 15 percent are magnet schools.

Arizona had three of the top five charter high schools in the country:

1. BASIS Scottsdale, Arizona
2. Haas Hall Academy, Arkansas
3. Signature Academy, Indiana
4. BASIS Chandler, Arizona
5. BASIS Peoria, Arizona

These Maryland schools were ranked among the best charter schools nationally:

• Chesapeake Science Point, Hanover; No. 159 in U.S.
• Chesapeake Math And IT Academy, Laurel; No. 309
• Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women, Baltimore; No. 836
• Coppin Academy, Baltimore; No. 951

Here are the top five magnet high schools, according to U.S. News:

1. Academic Magnet High School, South Carolina
2. Maine School of Science and Mathematics, Maine
3. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Virginia
4. Central Magnet School, Tennessee
5. International Academy of Macomb, Michigan

These Maryland schools were among the best magnet schools nationally:

• Eastern Tech, Essex, No. 49 in U.S.
• Western School of Technology and Environmental Science, Catonsville; No. 71
• Richard Montgomery High School, Rockville; No. 75
• George W. Carver Center for Arts and Technology, Towson; No. 76
• Towson High Law and Public Policy, Towson; No. 102
• Montgomery Blair High School, Silver Spring; No. 147
• Chesapeake Science Point, Hanover; No. 159
• Eleanor Roosevelt High, Greenbelt; No. 197
• Academy Of Health Sciences At Pgcc, Largo; No. 246
• Poolesville High, Poolesville; No. 256
• Sparrows Point High, Sparrows Point; No. 341
• Oxon Hill High, Oxon Hill; No. 370
• North Hagerstown High, Hagerstown; No. 378
• Charles Herbert Flowers High, Springdale; No. 426
• Aberdeen High, Aberdeen; No. 493
• Duval High, Lanham; No. 554
• Parkdale High, Riverdale; No. 562
• Central High, Capitol Heights; No. 576
• Randallstown High, Randallstown; No. 598
• Northwestern High, Hyattsville; No. 606
• Chesapeake High, Essex; No. 613
• Fairmont Heights High, Capitol Heights; No. 615
• Patapsco High, Dundalk; No. 618
• Milford Mill Academy, Milford Mill; No. 674
• Parkville High, Parkville; No. 700
• Bladensburg High, Bladensburg; No. 704
• Laurel High, Laurel; No. 711

Overall, only seven states had more than a third of their schools in the top 25 percent of the rankings overall, 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 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.

The full list is available exclusively on usnews.com.

— By Patch editors Beth Dalbey and Elizabeth Janney