Best Oregon High Schools 2017: U.S. News And World Report List

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 Oregon, the School of Science and Technology in Beaverton earned best high school in the state, but ranked 436th nationally. West Linn High School ranked second best in the state, followed by Lakeridge High School in Lake Oswego. All told, 78 Oregon schools made the U.S. News list, with one earning a gold medal, 21 receiving silver medals, and 56 earning bronze medals.

The 2017 rankings of best high schools identify the top-performing public schools at both the national and the state level and include data on more than 28,000 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 (CRI), which was the number of students in grade 12 who took and passed at least one AP test, divided by the number of senior students at that school.

To be ranked numerically nationally, schools had to pass steps one through three and have a CRI 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, while also being ranked nationally. (Other schools may have received a bronze award, but were not ranked on the state level. These schools also did not list a college readiness score.)

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 25 high schools in Oregon are:

1. School of Science and Technology, Beaverton (National Rank: 436)
2. West Linn High School, West Linn –– West Linn-Wilsonville School District (National Rank: 520)
3. Lakeridge High School, Lake Oswego (National Rank: 665)
4. Wilsonville High School, Wilsonville –– West Linn-Wilsonville School District (National Rank: 731)
5. Summit High School, Bend –– Bend-La Pine Administrative School District (National Rank: 907)
6. South Eugene High School, Eugene (National Rank: 1,110)
7. Westview High School, Portland –– Beaverton School District (National Rank: 1,177)
8. Franklin High School, Portland (National Rank: 1,393)
9. Oregon City Senior High School, Oregon City (National Rank: 1,513)
10. Mountain View Senior High School, Bend –– Bend-La Pine Administrative School District (National Rank: 1,577)
11. Enterprise High School, Enterprise (National Rank: 1,617)
12. Crescent Valley High School, Corvallis (National Rank: 1,765)
13. West Salem High School, Salem –– Salem-Keizer School District (National Rank: 1,892)
14. Clackamas High School, Clackamas –– North Clackamas School District (National Rank: 1,947)
15. Nestucca High School, Cloverdale –– Nestucca Valley School District (National Rank: 1,985)
16. Riverdale High School, Portland –– Riverdale School District (National Rank: 2,009)
17. Ashland High School, Ashland (National Rank: 2,119)
18. Churchill High School, Eugene (National Rank: 2,272)
19. Southridge High School, Beaverton (National Rank: 2,323)
20. Phoenix High School, Phoenix –– Phoenix-Talent School District (National Rank: 2,444)
21. Oakridge High School, Oakridge (National Rank: 2,449)
22. Corvallis High School, Corvallis (National Rank: 2,458)
23. Philomath High School, Philomath (Nationally Recognized, Unranked)
24. Elmira High School, Elmira –– Fern Ridge School District (Nationally Recognized, Unranked)
25. Cottage Grove High School, Cottage Grove –– South Lane School District (Nationally Recognized, Unranked)

Click here to see the full list of Oregon school rankings

The top 10 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 of national school rankings

Patch Breaking News Editor Feroze Dhanoa contributed to this post.

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