Staff Report
U.S. News and World Report latest rankings on public high schools places Highlands High School at #1 in Kentucky and Beechwood High School at #3.
No Kentucky high school appears in the Top Ten nationally. The top high school nationally, by the U.S. News data, is the School for the Talented and Gifted in Dallas, TX., part of the Dallas Independent School District. It is a school of 253 students and 17 teachers.
The report’s data show that Highlands is #197 nationally and that student-teacher ratio is 17:1 and “near the Kentucky average.” Highlands ranks above the Kentucky average on “College Readiness,” “Algebra” proficiency, and “English” proficiency.
Beechwood, the report says, also has a 17:1 student-teacher ratio and ranks above the Kentucky average in the other categories. The school ranks #333 nationally.
Other Northern Kentucky schools ranked among the Top 20 in Kentucky: Campbell County, 13; Conner High School, 14; Randall K. Cooper High School, 15.
More than 21,150 high schools were analyzed, and the gold medal designation is awarded to the top 500 schools, representing only 2.8% of all high schools in the entire country.
“We are very excited that Highlands High School has once again been recognized as number one in Kentucky and one of America’s best. Congratulations to our students, staff and community,” said Superintendent Gene Kirchner.
Schools were awarded gold, silver, or bronze medals based on state proficiency standards, how well they prepare students for college, and other factors.
Both Highlands and Beechwood received Gold Medal designations.
To produce the 2015 Best High Schools rankings, U.S. News & World Report teamed with North Carolina-based RTI International, a global nonprofit social science research firm.
RTI implemented the U.S. News comprehensive rankings methodology, which is based on these key principles: that a great high school must serve all of its students well, not just those who are college bound, and that it must be able to produce measurable academic outcomes to show it is successfully educating its student body across a range of performance indicators.
For more information about the Best High Schools, visit www.usnews.com/highschools.