Ohio's Best High Schools: Avon Lake Makes List

AVON, OH — Avon Lake High is the fifth best high school in Northeast Ohio, according to new rankings from U.S. News & World Report. The high school ranked 24th in Ohio overall.

"We are very proud of our inclusion in the annual U.S. News Best Public HS Rankings," said Avon Lake Superintendent Bob Scott in an emailed statement. "The school year moves so quickly and is so hectic that we often forget to take the time to celebrate our success. This ranking allows us to pause and give our students, staff, parents, and community the praise and thanks deserved for their hard work and/or support. We have an outstanding high school and the praise is well deserved."

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.

“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.

The five best Northeast Ohio high schools, according to the rankings, are:

1. Hudson High School (ranked 8 statewide)

2. Solon High School (ranked 11 statewide)

3. Aurora High School (ranked 13 statewide)

4. Chagrin Falls High School (ranked 21 statewide)

5. Avon Lake High School (ranked 24 statewide)

Cross-town rival Avon High School also made the rankings, but came in at No. 76 on the Ohio list.

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.)

Photo from Google Earth