NC Has 50 U.S. News Best Schools In The Country For 2018

U.S. News & World Report has ranked the best high schools in the country and 50 of them are in North Carolina, according to rankings released Wednesday. The highest ranked North Carolina school on the list was No. 12.

The 2018 best high school rankings were released on Wednesday and evaluate over 20,500 public high schools. U.S. News identified schools that best serve all students and assessed how prepared students are for college-level work. Schools are also recognized with gold, silver and bronze medals with gold indicating the greatest level of college readiness.

Seventeen North Carolina schools received a gold medal, 33 received a silver medal and 102 schools received a bronze medal.

Compared to other states, North Carolina’s performance was rated as no. 35 by U.S. News, tied with Oregon. The state-by-state performance rating was based on which states have the highest the highest proportion of schools with gold and silver medals. Based on this metric, Massachusetts was the leading performer, followed by California and Maryland.

“Top-ranked schools succeed in three main areas: exceeding expectations on state proficiency tests, offering challenging coursework and graduating their students,” Anita Narayan, managing editor of Education at U.S. News, said in a press release.

Here’s how the top North Carolina schools finished nationally according to place in the 2018 rankings:

• The Early College at Guilford, Greensboro (12) GOLD
• Raleigh Charter High School, Raleigh (64) GOLD
• Woods Charter, Chapel Hill (100) GOLD
• Philip J. Weaver Ed Center, Greensboro (104) GOLD
• Thomas Jefferson Class Academy, Mooresboro (126) GOLD
• East Chapel Hill High, Chapel Hill (155) GOLD
• Lake Norman Charter, Huntersville (163) GOLD
• STEM Early College at N.C. A&T, Greensboro (179), GOLD
• Chapel Hill High, Chapel Hill (217), GOLD
• School of Inquiry and Life Sciences, Asheville (225) GOLD
• Gray Stone Day, Misenheimer, (236) GOLD
• Penn-Griffin Schools, High Point (274) GOLD
• Carrboro High, Carrboro (286) GOLD
• Marvin Ridge High, Waxhaw (369) GOLD
• Ardrey Kell High, Charlotte (384) GOLD
• Providence High, Charlotte (436) GOLD
• Community School of Davidson, Davidson (438) GOLD

Bronze medal schools are not ranked by U.S. News.

To determine the rankings, U.S. News teamed up with the social science research firm RTI International. A variety of data sources, including the Common Core of Data, College Board and the International Baccalaureate, were used.

A four-step process was used to rank all eligible schools. The first two steps were to determine whether students were performing better than statistically expected in the state and whether minority were performing at or better than the state average for minority students, which was the second step. The third step required schools to meet or surpass a certain graduation benchmark and the final step was to determine college readiness. (You can read the full methodology here.)

The top 10 high schools in the U.S. overall are:

1. BASIS Scottsdale (AZ)
2. BASIS Chandler (AZ)
3. BASIS Oro Valley (AZ)
4. BASIS Tucson North (AZ)
5. BASIS Flagstaff (AZ)
6. Meridian School (TX)
7. International Academy of Macomb (MI)
8. BASIS Peoria (AZ)
9. Baccalaureate School for Global Education (NY)
10. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (VA)

Click here to see the full rankings and for more insight on the data.

Photo via Shutterstock