New Ranking Of Maryland's Best Public High Schools

With the 2017-18 school year only a month away from kicking off across Maryland, students and their parents can see how their particular school district stacks up against others in the state as Niche.com has released its annual rankings of best schools and school districts in the country.

To arrive at the rankings, Niche looked at data from the U.S. Department of Education as well as test scores, college data and ratings collected from Niche users. The methodology for each category of rankings varied with some factors having a higher weight for certain categories over others.

The 2018 rankings released this month rank elementary, middle and high schools as well as school districts. Maryland high schools did moderately well, with Howard County Public Schools ranking in the top 100 on Niche's Best Best School Districts nationwide list, while none of the state's schools made the top tiers of Best Public High Schools In America.

Best school districts

In the best school district rankings, Maryland listings include:

• No. 1: Howard County Public Schools
• No. 2: Montgomery County Public Schools
• No. 4: Carroll County Public Schools
• No. 5: Harford County Public Schools
• No. 9: Baltimore County Public Schools
• No. 12: Anne Arundel County Public Schools
• No. 24: Hinsdale Central High School, Hinsdale

View Niche's full public high school rankings here.

SEE ALSO:

• Best Maryland High Schools 2017: U.S. News
• Are Maryland Schools Slipping? Rank Falls In New Survey
• Maryland Falls In Education Rankings Because Of Achievement Gaps
• America's Best Schools: Where Maryland Ranks

Best elementary schools

No Maryland schools made the top 25 public elementary school rankings, but several schools did earn an overall grade of A+. Most of those schools are either in Howard or Montgomery counties, led by Carl Sandburg Learning Center in Rockville, and Waverly Elementary School in Ellicott City.

View the full Niche best elementary school rankings here.

Best public high schools

No Maryland public high schools ranked among Niche's Top 25 Best School Districts In America. But 19 of the state's schools received an A+ rating.

The state list includes:

• No. 1 Poolesville High School
• No. 2 Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda
• No. 3 Winston Churchill High School in Potomac
• No. 4 Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville
• No. 5 Thomas Wootton High School in Rockville
• No. 6 River Hill High School in Clarksville
• No. 7 Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda
• No. 8 Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring
• No. 9 Marriotts Ridge High School in Marriottsville
• No. 10 Mount Hebron High School in Ellicott City
• No. 11 Centennial High School in Ellicott City
• No. 13 Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School in Bethesda
• No. 14 Atholton High School in Columbia
• No. 15 Eastern Technical High School in Baltimore
• No. 16 Dulaney High School in Timonium
• No. 17 Northwest High School in Germantown
• No. 18 Howard High School in Ellicott City
• No. 19 Quince Orchard High School in Gaithersburg

Find the full list here.

For the best school districts, academics grade was given the highest priority in the methodology with 50 percent of the ranking being based on this data. Niche calculated academics grade by using data from the Department of Education as well as data that was self reported by Niche users. Teachers grade accounted for 15 percent of the ranking while culture and diversity and parent/student surveys on overall experience both accounted for 10 percent of the ranking. The remaining 15 percent of the ranking was based on health and safety, resources and facilities, clubs and activities, and sports.(Click here for more information on how Niche calculates its rankings.)

Niche assigns a standardized score for each factor, which is then weighted before an overall score is calculated for each school district. The overall scores are again standardized and some districts are disqualified from receiving a final letter grade if there isn’t enough data. School districts are then ranked numerically and assigned grades.

More: 15 Maryland Schools Ranked ‘Best Colleges For Your Money’

What do you think of the rankings? Let us know in the comments below.
Image via Shutterstock
Feroze Dhanoa (Patch National Staff) contributed to this article