Virginia's Best High Schools 2017: U.S. News

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 national and state levels.

In Virginia, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria earned the title of the best high school in the state. Overall, the school ranked 20th best high school in the country.

McLean had a strong showing: McLean High School ranked second best in the state, followed by Langley High School.

The top high 10 schools in Virginia are as follows, according to U.S. News:

1. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Alexandria (National Rank: 6)
2. McLean High School, McLean (National Rank: 153)
3. Langley High School, McLean (National Rank: 180)
4. Oakton High School, Vienna (National Rank: 198)
5. Woodson High School, Fairfax (National Rank: 205)
6. Yorktown High School, Arlington (National Rank: 225)
7. Stone Bridge High School, Ashburn (National Rank: 243)
8. West Springfield Road, Springfield (National Rank: 261)
9. Briar Woods High School, Ashburn (National Rank: 327)
10. Dominion High School, Sterling (National Rank: 342)

Click here to see the full list.

See Also: Top Virginia High Schools In 2016, Ranked By U.S. News

The top high schools in the country are as follows, according to U.S. News:

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.

U.S. News assigned schools medals for their college preparedness, based on graduation rates and state test scores. Compared with other states, Virginia came in 11th, with 16.9 percent of the state’s schools receiving silver or gold medals. Fifteen Virginia high schools were given gold medals by U.S. News, 39 received silver medals and the remaining 27 schools received bronze medals.

How U.S. News Came Up With Its Rankings

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.

—By Feroze Dhanoa and Elizabeth Janney

Image via Shutterstock.