Where Did Lakewood Rank Among Ohio's Best High Schools?

LAKEWOOD, OH — Lakewood High was among the 188 Ohio high schools that made U.S. News & World Report's 2018 best schools ranking. The home of the Rangers earned a Bronze medal from the publication.

“We are grateful for this recognition,” said LHS Principal Keith Ahearn on the district website, “however, we also feel that Lakewood High’s quality of education and student success is measured by much more than the criteria used to determine this award.”

Of the 188 Ohio high schools that made the publication's rankings, Lakewood came in at No. 134. Neighboring Rocky River came in at No. 35.

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)

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 Rick Uldricks, Patch