Four Missouri Schools Ranked Best High Schools in the Nation

Included in the list, Ava R-1 High School and Norwood High School received Bronze rankings among the best high schools in the nation.   Awards based on proficiency standards and college preparation.

U.S. News & World Report announced last week that four Missouri schools ranked among the best high schools in the nation based on academic proficiency standards and college preparation.

The nationally ranked Missouri schools awarded gold medal status are:

Metro High School, St. Louis City School District, ranked 76th nationally.

Clayton High School, Clayton School District, ranked 136th nationally.

Lincoln College Preparatory, Kansas City 33 School District, ranked 254th nationally.

Central High School, Springfield R-XII School District, ranked 327th nationally.

“Three of the top four public high schools ranked nationally in the state of Missouri are located in our largest districts,” said Missouri Commissioner of Education Chris L. Nicastro. “Student performance and college and/or career readiness are certainly a primary focus for the Department, so we are thrilled to see a number of schools in our state reaching for and achieving some of these same goals.”

In addition to the four gold medals, Missouri had 13 schools awarded silver medals and 125 schools awarded bronze medals.

Nearly 22,000 public high schools in 49 states and the District of Columbia were evaluated by the American Institutes for Research using U.S. News’ state rankings methodology. The schools included in the evaluation process were identified as having twelfth-grade enrollment and sufficient data to analyze, primarily from the 2009-2010 school year.

Two percent, or the top 500 schools, were awarded gold status; 7 percent, or approximately 1,500 schools, were awarded silver status; 13 percent, or almost 2,900 schools, were awarded bronze status; and the remaining 78 percent did not receive a medal.

The schools were awarded gold, silver, bronze or non-medal status based on a three-step process: whether the school’s students performed better than the average student in their state; whether the school’s least-advantaged students performed better than the average similar student in their state; and whether the school’s students had high college-level achievement. Schools must pass the first two steps in order to be judged on college preparation where they were then given an index value. To have been awarded a gold or silver medal, a school must have had an index value at or above the median benchmark of 16.3.

The last edition of the best high schools report was published in December 2009 and included information on 1,800 schools.