Minnesota Has 4 U.S. News Best STEM High Schools For 2018

Minnesota has four of the best high schools in America when it comes to science, technology, engineering and mathematics, known as STEM schools, according to new rankings by U.S. News & World Report.

The report, released Wednesday, says the top STEM school in Minnesota is Orono Senior High with a graduation rate of 99 percent and a college readiness score of 72.6 out of 100.

Here are all the top STEM schools in Minnesota, each of which earned a spot among the organization’s top 500 overall high school rankings, also released Wednesday.

• Orono Senior High
• Orono
• STEM rank: 172
• Edina Senior High
• Edina
• STEM rank: 174
• Math and Science Academy
• Woodbury
• STEM rank: 193
• Nova Classical Academy Upper School
• Saint Paul
• STEM rank: 233

The rankings come as the U.S. finds itself lagging behind many other advanced industrial nations when it comes to math and science. In 2015, the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, ranked the U.S. 38th out of 71 countries for math literacy and 24th for science literacy.

Among the 35 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which sponsors the PISA initiative, America ranked 30th in math and 19th in science.

Related: Minnesota Has 58 Of America's Best High Schools In 2018: US News

U.S. News’s STEM high school rankings looked at the the top 500 public schools from the overall rankings and then evaluated for the schools for student participation — and success — in Advanced Placement science and math tests.

AP is a College Board program that offers college-level courses at high schools. Students at these schools “must participate in and pass a robust curriculum of college-level math and science courses,” U.S. News says on its website.

For mathematics, AP courses include Calculus AB, Calculus BC, Computer Science A and Statistics. For science, AP courses include Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Physics 1, Physics 2, Physics B, Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism and Physics C: Mechanics.

New Jersey, Texas and California each had at least two schools crack the top 10 overall for best STEM schools.

1. High Technology High School (NJ)
2. BASIS Scottsdale (AZ)
3. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (VA)
4. Bergen County Academies (NJ)
5. The Early College at Guilford (NC)
6. Science and Engineering Magnet School (TX)
7. Monta Vista High (CA)
8. Union County Magnet High School (NJ)
9. Saratoga High (CA)
10. DeBakey High School for Health Professions (TX)

Click here to read more about the methodology.

Patch reporters Dan Hampton and Feroze Dhanoa contributed to this report.

Photo by Kimberly Johnson/Patch