Lower Merion, Harriton High Schools Ranked: U.S. News And World Report

ARDMORE, PA – U.S. News And World Report released new rankings for high schools, both nationally and among states. In the new rankings, the Main Line is represented very well as per usual, with Lower Merion and Harriton high schools earning solid positions in the ranks.

According to the outlet, LMHS is the 13th best high school in Pennsylvania, and the 680th best in the country.

Meanwhile, Harriton HS is the 24th best high school in PA and the 904th in the country.

Part of LMHS' high rankings come from its 99 percent graduation rate, 95 percent and 94 percent proficiency levels in English and math, and a 90 percent pass rate on AP testing, among other aspects.

You can see all of the metrics measured at Lower Merion High School online here.

As for Harriton, the school boasts a 96 percent graduation rate, and also has a 95 percent proficiency level in English. Math's proficiency level is 91 percent and its AP test pass percentage is 88 percent.

You can see all of the metrics measured at Harriton High School online here.

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 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.

Here are those steps:

• 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.

Image via Lower Merion School District