Beachwood 1 Of Ohio's 100 Best High Schools: US News And World Report

BEACHWOOD, OH - Beachwood High School is among Ohio's best 100 high schools according to a new US News and World Report ranking. The high school ranked 1,821st among all American high schools.

The official ranking for Beachwood is 91st in Ohio and the high school scored poorly in a few key areas that impacted its state ranking. According to the US News and World Report Scorecard, Beachwood High School students have a 30.6 college readiness score and only 37 percent of students are participating in AP Testing.

For comparison, let's look at nearby Solon High School, which ranked 15th among Ohio high schools. Solon students have a college readiness score of 60.7. Additionally, 64 percent of that student body participates in AP Testing.

Beachwood students did score well in their English and Math proficiency. The high school's Math Proficiency score was 97 percent and its English Proficiency was 98 percent. Plus, the high school has a graduation rate of 97 percent.

How were the rankings compiled?

The 2017 rankings of best high schools identify the top-performing public schools at both the national and the state level and include date 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.

The top high 10 schools in Ohio are:

1. Walnut Hills High School, Cincinnati
2. Wyoming High School, Wyoming
3. Indian Hill High School, Cincinnati
4. Bexley High School, Bexley
5. Madeira High School, Cincinnati
6. Aurora High School, Aurora
7. Hudson High School, Hudson
8. Olentangy Liberty High School, Olentangy Local
9. Dublin Jerome High School, Dublin
10. Olentangy High School, Lewis Center

Photo from Beachwood Schools