The Best High Schools In Ohio For 2017: U.S. News And World Report

CLEVELAND, OH - 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 Ohio, Walnut Hills High School in Cincinnati earned the title of the best high school in the state. Overall, the school ranked as the 77th best high school in the country. Wyoming High School in Wyoming, Ohio ranked as the second best in the state, followed by Indian Hill and Bexley high schools. Nineteen Ohio high schools were given gold medals by U.S. News, 124 received silver medals and the remaining 222 schools received bronze medals.

If you don't see your school in the top 10, check out your local Patch. Throughout Tuesday, we will be posting stories on where local high schools ranked in the report.

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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, Auroa
7. Hudson High School, Hudson
8. Olentangy Liberty High School, Olentangy Local
9. Dublin Jerome High School, Dublin
10. Olentangy High School, Lewis Center

Click here to see the full list.

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.

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