The U.S. News and World Report has released its 2020 ranking of America’s high schools, with Urbana High placing in Maryland’s top 10. In addition, of the 212 Maryland high schools that made the national ranking, Oakdale ranked 15th in Maryland, Linganore 21st, Middletown 40th, Walkersville 49th, Tuscarora 55th, Brunswick 57th, Gov. Thomas Johnson 99th, Catoctin 102nd and Frederick 110th. The highest-ranked schools are those whose students excelled on state tests and performed beyond expectations, participated in and passed a variety of college-level exams and graduated in high proportions.
Rankings reflect the 2017-2018 school year and reflect state and federal data as well as College Board Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) testing and participation. The six indicators of school quality used to calculate the rankings are as follows:
• College readiness, based on the proportions of 12th grade students who took and passed AP and/or IB exams
• Math and reading proficiency, based on student performance on state-required tests
• Underserved student performance, based on how black, Hispanic and low-income students performed on state assessments
• Math and reading performance, based on whether performance on state assessments exceeded expectations given the school's proportion of underserved students
• Breadth of college curriculum, based on proportions of 12th grade students who took and passed AP and/or IB exams in multiple content areas
• Graduation rates, based on the proportion of students who entered ninth grade in 2013-2014 and graduated four years later.
Numerical ranks were assigned to schools performing in the top 75%. The rankings included more than 24,000 public high schools in 50 states and the District of Columbia. Of the 17,792 schools ranked, all Frederick County High Schools were ranked and were among only 212 Maryland high schools that made the national ranking.
More information is online: https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/maryland