Long Island's Best High Schools for 2017: U.S. News and World Report

U.S. News and World Report has crunched the numbers for 2017, releasing its annual list of best high schools in the country, ranking the schools on a national and a state level.

In New York, High School of American Studies at Lehman College in the Bronx earned the title of the best high school in the state. Overall, the school ranked as the 17th best high school in the country.

Not a single Long Island school cracked the Top 10 in the state rankings. The first Long Island school in the state rankings was Jericho Senior High School at No. 11. The school was also ranked No. 67 nationally. Overall, 22 Long Island schools made the Top 100 in the New York State rankings. (scroll down to see which Long Island school made the list)

Fifty-five New York high schools were given gold medals by U.S. News. Compared to other states, New York came in 12th, with 16.5 percent of the state’s schools receiving silver or gold medals.

The 2017 rankings of best high schools identify the top-performing public schools at both the national and the state level and include data on more than 20,000 high schools. To be considered among the best, high schools had to pass a rigorous four-step process that sought to determine whether a school was serving all of its students and not just those who are college bound.

The first step determined whether students at a particular school were performing better than statistically expected for students in that state, factoring in percentages of economically disadvantaged students to identify schools. Schools that passed this step then moved on to step two, which assessed whether disadvantaged students performed at or better than state averages for the least-advantaged students.

For the next two steps, U.S. News looked at graduation rates and college readiness performance. To pass step three, high schools had to have a graduation rate of 75 percent or greater. For the 2017 rankings, the graduation rate reflect students who entered the ninth grade in the 2011-2012 school year. Finally, U.S. News calculated a college readiness index, which was the number of 12th graders who took and passed at least one AP test, divided by the number of 12th graders at that school.

To be ranked numerically nationally, schools had to pass steps 1-3 and have a college readiness index of 20.91 or above.

A total of 6,041 schools were ranked, 500 schools receiving gold medals, 2,109 schools receiving silver medals and the remaining 3,432 schools received bronze medals. Schools that received bronze medals passed the first three steps but were not ranked numerically in the national rankings. The state rankings were based on whether a high school received a gold, silver or a bronze medal and had a CRI value of 10 or higher. Previously, only gold and silver medal winners were ranked numerically on the state level.

Long Island schools that made the Top 100 state rankings are:

• No. 11— Jericho Senior High School (National Rank: No. 67)
• No. 20— Garden City High School (National Rank: No. 157)
• No. 21— Great Neck North High School (National Rank: No. 164)
• No. 24— Syosset Senior High School (National Rank: No. 173)
• No. 25— Manhasset Secondary School (National Rank: No. 177)
• No. 30— Great Neck South High School (National Rank: No. 195)
• No. 31— Cold Spring Harbor High School (National Rank: No. 196)
• No. 32— Roslyn High School (National Rank: No. 208)
• No. 33— Herricks High School (National Rank: No. 213)
• No. 36— Paul D. Schreiber Senior High School (National Rank: No. 223)
• No. 37— North Shore Senior High School (National Rank: No. 234)
• No. 39— Harborfields High School (National Rank: No. 247)
• No. 41— Earl L. Vandermeulen High School (National Rank: No. 344)
• No. 46— Plainview Old Bethpage JFK High School (National Rank: No. 381)
• No. 52— Half Hollow Hills High School East (National Rank: No. 428)
• No. 59— Half Hollow Hills High School West (National Rank: No. 588)
• No. 62— John F. Kennedy High School (National Rank: No. 612)
• No. 74— Smithtown High School-West (National Rank: No. 720)
• No. 80— Ward Melville Senior High School (National Rank: No. 795)
• No. 85— Lynbrook Senior High School (National Rank: No. 877)
• No. 87— Gen. Douglas MacArthur Senior High School (National Rank: No. 896)
• No. 91— Smithtown High School-East (National Rank: No. 939)

Click here to see the full list for New York.

The top high schools in the country are:

1. BASIS Scottsdale, Scottsdale, Arizona
2. BASIS Tucson North, Tucson, Arizona
3. BASIS Oro Valley, Oro Valley, Arizona
4. School for the Talented and Gifted, Dallas, Texas
5. BASIS Peoria, Peoria, Arizona
6. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Alexandria, Virginia
7. Basis Chandler, Chandler, Arizona
8. Carnegie Vanguard High School, Houston, Texas
9. School of Science and Engineering, Dallas, Texas
10. Pacific Collegiate Charter, Santa Cruz, California

Click here to see the full list.

Story by Feroze Dhanoa

Shutterstock image