Students at these 10 high schools have a lot to be proud of.
U.S. News & World Report analyzed data from 22,000 public high schools in 50 states and the District of Columbia and found that 10 schools stood out as the best in the country.
They considered factors such as graduation rate, college readiness and educational equity in order to calculate their rankings.
Check out the 10 best high schools in the country:
Location: Santa Cruz, CA
Total enrollment: 508
Graduation rate: 87 percent
Mathematics proficiency: 96 percent
English proficiency: 98 percent
Location: Dallas, TX
Total enrollment: 395
Graduation rate: 99 percent
Mathematics proficiency: n/a
English proficiency: 100 percent
Location: Houston, TX
Total enrollment: 613
Graduation rate: 100 percent
Mathematics proficiency: 100 percent
English proficiency: 100 percent
Location: Chandler, AZ
Total enrollment: 727
Graduation rate: 98 percent
Mathematics proficiency: 92 percent
English proficiency: 96 percent
Location: Alexandria, VA
Total enrollment: 1,820
Graduation rate: 99 percent
Mathematics proficiency: 100 percent
English proficiency: 100 percent
Location: Peoria, AZ
Total enrollment: 746
Graduation rate: 97 percent
Mathematics proficiency: 84 percent
English proficiency: 68 percent
Location: Dallas, TX
Total enrollment: 252
Graduation rate: 100 percent
Mathematics proficiency: 100 percent
English proficiency: 100 percent
Location: Oro Valley, AZ
Total enrollment: 549
Graduation rate: 97 percent
Mathematics proficiency: 81 percent
English proficiency: 95 percent
Location: Tucson, AZ
Total enrollment: 948
Graduation rate: 98 percent
Mathematics proficiency: 82 percent
English proficiency: 93 percent
Location: Scottsdale, AZ
Total enrollment: 754
Graduation rate: 100 percent
Mathematics proficiency: 90 percent
English proficiency: 81 percent
All 10 of the highest ranked schools were charter or magnet schools. In order to gain admission into a charter school, students must enlist in a lottery and in order to attend a magnet school, students must meet high academic standards.
In order to rank highly on U.S. News’ list, schools needed to demonstrate that their black, Hispanic and low-income students performed better than the state average. This is one reason that BASIS Scottsdale in Scottsdale Arizona topped U.S. News’ list of best high schools in the country.
BASIS, a non-profit chain of charter schools located primarily in Arizona, has earned a reputation for creating high-performing schools. It has also been criticized by educators for cherry-picking only the brightest students despite open-enrollment laws. Four other Arizona BASIS charter schools cracked the top 10.
According to the Department of Education, Arizona has the third highest educational spending inequality in the country.
The School for the Talented and Gifted, known as “TAG,” in Dallas Texas was the highest ranking school outside of Arizona. TAG boats a 100 percent graduation rate and students receive perfect scores for math and English proficiency. One reason for the high scores is because only highly competent students are admitted.
All of the schools in the top 10 enrolled fewer than 1,000 students, with the exception of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, which has a student body of 1,820.
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