Virginia Has 3rd Best STEM School In Nation: U.S. News

Virginia has six of the best high schools in the country when it comes to programs for science, technology, engineering and mathematics — known as STEM — according to new rankings by U.S. News & World Report. In fact, one Virginia school cracked the top five.

The rankings, released this week, show the top STEM school in Virginia is Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. It ranked third nationally.

To come up with its STEM high school rankings, U.S. News looked at the top 500 public schools from its "best high schools" list, released Wednesday, then evaluated them based on student participation — and success — in Advanced Placement science and math tests.

Here are all the top STEM schools in Virginia, according to U.S. News & World Report:

• Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology
  
  • Alexandria
  • STEM rank: 3
  • Fairfax County Public Schools
• Langley High School
  • McLean
  • STEM rank: 201
  • Fairfax County Public Schools
• Woodson High School
  • Fairfax
  • STEM rank: 213
  • Fairfax County Public Schools
• McLean High School
  • McLean
  • STEM rank: 221
  • Fairfax County Public Schools
• Lake Braddock Secondary School
  
  • Burke
  • STEM rank: 240
  • Fairfax County Public Schools
• Oakton High School
  • Vienna
  • STEM rank: 242
  • Fairfax County Public Schools

SEE ALSO: Virginia Has 103 Of America's Best High Schools In 2018, U.S. News Says

New Jersey, Texas and California each had at least two schools crack the top 10 overall on the U.S. News Best STEM schools list.

Here are the top 10 best STEM schools, according to U.S. News & World Report:

1. High Technology High School (NJ)
2. BASIS Scottsdale (AZ)
3. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (VA)
4. Bergen County Academies (NJ)
5. The Early College at Guilford (NC)
6. Science and Engineering Magnet School (TX)
7. Monta Vista High (CA)
8. Union County Magnet High School (NJ)
9. Saratoga High (CA)
10. DeBakey High School for Health Professions (TX)

Click here to read more about the methodology.

The rankings come as the U.S. finds itself lagging behind many other advanced industrial nations when it comes to math and science. In 2015, the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, ranked the U.S. 38th out of 71 countries for math literacy and 24th for science literacy.

The leader in science and math, based on that assessment, was Singapore.

Among the 35 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which sponsors the PISA initiative, America ranked 30th in math and 19th in science.

Patch reporters Dan Hampton and Feroze Dhanoa contributed to this report.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock.