Earlier this year, US News came out with their annual survey of high schools in the country and we now have the opportunity to look at how different states fared overall. Which of them have the best and which have the worst high schools?
The ranking is based on the number of schools in the state that earned Gold and Silver Medals, which were in turn earned by providing college preparation for the students. More precisely, they looked at passing scores on International Baccalaureate and Advancement Placement tests.
Three states – Minnesota, South Dakota and Alabama did not give US news the permission to use their AP data and their rankings are based solely on IB data.
The state that fared the best according to these rankings is Maryland, where 20 schools earned gold medals and where 47 schools earned the silver. In terms of percentage, 28.9% of Maryland high schools earned gold and silver.
California is the second on the list, with 27.2% high schools earning honors. Connecticut is third with 25.4%; Massachusetts is fourth with 22.4% and District of Columbia is fifth with 21.9% of schools getting gold and silver medals.
On the other end, we have South Dakota and Alabama with no high schools getting gold or silver and Mississippi with only one school, or 0.4%. In the bottom of the rankings, you can also find North Dakota, Minnesota and Nebraska.
We can only hope that the education authorities in the different states will acknowledge this list and try and do something about it.
We’re looking at you South Dakota, Alabama and Mississippi!
