U.S. News Best High Schools 2019: Florida Schools Make List

SARASOTA, FL — Sarasota County's Pine View School and Miami-Dade's School For Advanced Studies Homestead top the list of the best Florida high schools and take their place among the top high schools in America, according to U.S. News & World Report. The publication released its most comprehensive ranking yet of the nation’s high schools on Tuesday with more than 17,000 schools included, an increase from 2,700 last year.

Pine View ranked 15th nationally and first among Florida schools in the 2019 U.S. News Best High Schools rankings while School For Advanced Studies Homestead ranked second in Florida and 26th nationally. Pine View also ranked 8th among best charter schools.

“Pine View School is an undeniable asset to our school district,” said Todd Bowden, superintendent of Sarasota County Schools. “There is no other environment quite like it for academically gifted students, and we are proud that their hard work is being recognized on this scale."

Miami-Dade school officials noted that the district led other Florida districts with
52 schools earning U.S. News Best High Schools 2019 badges, including seven of the top
100 high schools in the nation and 13 of Florida’s top 20. Moreover, six of the top 10 schools in Florida were in Miami-Dade County.

“Miami-Dade County Public Schools continues to demonstrate that our district is a leader in academic performance and that includes providing our students with a remarkable range of educational opportunities,” said Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho. “The U.S. News & World Report’s rankings of our schools shines a bright light on the unparalleled talent and drive of our students and teachers.”

Other Florida schools rounding out the top 10 in the state are:

• School For Advanced Studies - South (3rd in Florida, Miami-Dade County Public Schools)
• International Studies Charter High School (4th in Florida, Miami-Dade County Public Schools)
• Stanton College Preparatory School (5th in Florida, Duval County Schools)
• Westshore Junior/Senior High School (6th in Florida, Brevard Public Schools)
• Design and Architecture Senior High (7th in Florida, Miami-Dade County Public Schools)
• Young Women's Preparatory Academy (8th in Florida, Miami-Dade County Public Schools)
• Archimedean Upper Conservatory Charter School (9th in Florida, Miami-Dade County Public Schools)
• Edgewood Jr/Sr High School (Brevard Public Schools)

Overall, Florida's schools graduate 95.4 percent of students.

U.S. News & World Report is the gold standard for education rankings and is widely considered the global authority. Anita Narayan, managing editor of education at U.S. News, said the aim of the rankings is to give families more information about the schools in their district.

“By evaluating more schools than ever before, the new edition expands that focus so all communities can see which schools in their area are successfully serving their students — including historically underserved populations,” Narayan said in a news release.

The factors considered in compiling the list include college readiness; reading and math proficiency; reading and math performance; underserved student performance; college curriculum breadth; and graduation rates. College readiness measures participation and performance on advanced placement and international baccalaureate exams.

The data also take into account school enrollment, student diversity, participation in free and reduced-price meal programs, graduation rates and the results of state assessment tests. U.S. News worked with the global research firm RTI International to rank the schools.

“We enhanced the methodology to provide an even more comprehensive ranking that is easier to understand and, therefore, more useful to parents and educators,” Robert Morse, chief data strategist at U.S. News, said in a news release. “Now, each school’s score correlates to its national percentile — a school with a score of 70 is in the 70th percentile and ranks higher than 70 percent of schools. Going forward, this methodology will allow for intuitive comparisons of a school’s performance year after year."

The top 10 schools are in 10 different states, demonstrating that a high-quality education can be found across the country, the report said. Those schools are:

1. Academic Magnet High School, South Carolina
2. Maine School of Science and Mathematics
3. BASIS Scottsdale, Arizona
4. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Virginia
5. Central Magnet School, Tennessee
6. Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science and Technology, Georgia
7. Haas Hall Academy, Arkansas
8. International Academy of Macomb, Michigan
9. Payton College Preparatory High School, Illinois
10. Signature School, Indiana

Several of those schools also were included among rankings for specialized schools.

The top five schools nationally for an education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM schools, are:

1. High Technology High School, New Jersey
2. BASIS Scottsdale, Arizona
3. BASIS Peoria, Arizona
4. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Georgia
5. The Early College at Guilford, North Carolina

Charter and magnet schools performed well in the rankings, U.S. News said. Within the top 5 percent of ranked schools, a third are either charter or magnet. In the national rankings, more than 18 percent are charter schools, and 15 percent are magnet schools.

Arizona had three of the top five charter high schools in the country. They are:

1. BASIS Scottsdale, Arizona
2. Haas Hall Academy, Arkansas
3. Signature Academy, Indiana
4. BASIS Chandler, Arizona
5. BASIS Peoria, Arizona

The top five magnet high schools are:

1. Academic Magnet High School, South Carolina
2. Maine School of Science and Mathematics
3. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Virginia
4. Central Magnet School, Tennessee
5. International Academy of Macomb, Michigan

In the state-by-state performance, based on the number of high schools in the top 25 percent of national rankings, Massachusetts was the leader. This year, nearly half — 48.8 percent — of the commonwealth’s high schools were ranked in the top 25 percent of high schools. Maryland was second with 43.7 percent, followed by California, with 40 percent, and Connecticut, with 39.8 percent in the top 25 percent of schools ranked nationally.

Overall, only seven states had more than a third of their schools in the top 25 percent, and 20 states had 25 percent or more of their schools in the top 25 percent.

On the other end of the spectrum, 22 states had fewer than 20 percent of their high schools in the top 25 percent, and seven had fewer than 10 percent of schools in the top tier. South Dakota’s schools finished at the bottom of the list since it was the only state that didn’t give U.S. News permission to use advanced placement data in the rankings. Even so, 1.9 percent of South Dakota’s schools finished in the top 25 percent of rankings.

The full list is available exclusively on usnews.com.

Patch national staffer Beth Dalbey contributed to this report.