U.S. News Best High Schools 2019: Solon Makes List

SOLON, OH — Solon High is among the best high schools in America, U.S. News & World Report said Tuesday in its most comprehensive ranking yet of the nation’s high schools. More than 17,000 schools are ranked, an increase from 2,700 last year.

Solon ranked 156 nationally and 6th among Ohio schools in the 2019 U.S. News Best High Schools rankings. Solon was also ranked No. 188 out of STEM-focused high schools nationwide. Solon High was also the highest rated Northeast Ohio school on the list.

"This really underscores the work that happens in the classrooms everyday. This doesn't happen by chance — it’s the result of a lot of hard work by students and staff and the support of the community," said Tamara Strom, a Solon Schools communications official.

Solon was the only Cuyahoga County high school to crack Ohio's top 10 rankings. Neighboring Aurora High, however, came in at No. 9. The second highest ranked Cuyahoga County schools was Brecksville-Broadview Heights at No. 17.

Strom said Solon students have a variety of courses to choose from and are able to mix-and-match Advanced Placement courses to create the ideal academic load for their schedule. The ability to customize for individual students, she said, helped Solon customize the high school experience for each student.

U.S. News & World Report is the gold standard for education rankings and is widely considered the global authority. Anita Narayan, managing editor of education at U.S. News, said the aim of the rankings is to give families more information about the schools in their district.

“By evaluating more schools than ever before, the new edition expands that focus so all communities can see which schools in their area are successfully serving their students — including historically underserved populations,” Narayan said in a news release.

The factors considered in compiling the list include college readiness; reading and math proficiency; reading and math performance; underserved student performance; college curriculum breadth; and graduation rates. College readiness measures participation and performance on advanced placement and international baccalaureate exams.

The data also take into account school enrollment, student diversity, participation in free and reduced-price meal programs, graduation rates and the results of state assessment tests. U.S. News worked with the global research firm RTI International to rank the schools.

“We enhanced the methodology to provide an even more comprehensive ranking that is easier to understand and, therefore, more useful to parents and educators,” Robert Morse, chief data strategist at U.S. News, said in a news release. “Now, each school’s score correlates to its national percentile — a school with a score of 70 is in the 70th percentile and ranks higher than 70 percent of schools. Going forward, this methodology will allow for intuitive comparisons of a school’s performance year after year."

The top 10 schools are in 10 different states, demonstrating that a high-quality education can be found across the country, the report said. Those schools are:

1. Academic Magnet High School, South Carolina
2. Maine School of Science and Mathematics
3. BASIS Scottsdale, Arizona
4. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Virginia
5. Central Magnet School, Tennessee
6. Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science and Technology, Georgia
7. Haas Hall Academy, Arkansas
8. International Academy of Macomb, Michigan
9. Payton College Preparatory High School, Illinois
10. Signature School, Indiana

Several of those schools also were included among rankings for specialized schools.

The top five schools nationally for an education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM schools, are:

1. High Technology High School, New Jersey
2. BASIS Scottsdale, Arizona
3. BASIS Peoria, Arizona
4. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Georgia
5. The Early College at Guilford, North Carolina

Charter and magnet schools performed well in the rankings, U.S. News said. Within the top 5 percent of ranked schools, a third are either charter or magnet. In the national rankings, more than 18 percent are charter schools, and 15 percent are magnet schools.

Arizona had three of the top five charter high schools in the country. They are:

1. BASIS Scottsdale, Arizona
2. Haas Hall Academy, Arkansas
3. Signature Academy, Indiana
4. BASIS Chandler, Arizona
5. BASIS Peoria, Arizona

The top five magnet high schools are:

1. Academic Magnet High School, South Carolina
2. Maine School of Science and Mathematics
3. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Virginia
4. Central Magnet School, Tennessee
5. International Academy of Macomb, Michigan

In the state-by-state performance, based on the number of high schools in the top 25 percent of national rankings, Massachusetts was the leader. This year, nearly half — 48.8 percent — of the commonwealth’s high schools were ranked in the top 25 percent of high schools. Maryland was second with 43.7 percent, followed by California, with 40 percent, and Connecticut, with 39.8 percent in the top 25 percent of schools ranked nationally.

Overall, only seven states had more than a third of their schools in the top 25 percent, and 20 states had 25 percent or more of their schools in the top 25 percent.

On the other end of the spectrum, 22 states had fewer than 20 percent of their high schools in the top 25 percent, and seven had fewer than 10 percent of schools in the top tier. South Dakota’s schools finished at the bottom of the list since it was the only state that didn’t give U.S. News permission to use advanced placement data in the rankings. Even so, 1.9 percent of South Dakota’s schools finished in the top 25 percent of rankings.

The full list is available exclusively on usnews.com.