This Is The Best Public High School In Illinois

By Grant Suneson, 24/7 Wall St. - Chicago

2021-10-07

The quality of American public schools can vary widely between states, cities, and even districts. Not all schools are able to provide students with the same level of education, access to extracurriculars, counseling, or college preparation. While each public school faces its own unique challenges, each state has one public school that stands out as the very best.

The best public high schools tend to be in relatively affluent areas, where incomes are well above the U.S. median household income of $62,843. A wealthier tax base for a school district means that schools have more funding to hire teachers and other faculty and provide more extracurriculars.

In many of the best public high schools in a given state, the vast majority of students graduate and perform well in educational assessments. Nationwide, only 24% of students are proficient in math and 37% are proficient in reading, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

Students at top high schools also tend to perform well in college entrance exams like the SAT and ACT, with reported scores well above the 1058 out of 1600 nationwide average for the SAT and the 20.6 out of 36 average for the ACT.

Payton College Preparatory High School in Chicago ranks as the best public high school in Illinois. The magnet school has an enrollment of just over 1,200 students in grades nine through 12.

Payton College Preparatory High School earned an A+ grade from school data platform Niche as well as top marks for its academics, teachers, clubs and activities, and college prep. More than 90% of students are proficient in reading and math. The school’s students reported an average SAT score of 1400 and an average ACT score of 31 — both well above nationwide averages.

To determine the best public high schools in every state, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the 2022 K-12 School & District Rankings from Niche, a platform for education data. The Niche ranking is based on academic and student life data from the U.S. Department of Education as well as student reviews submitted to Niche. Data on student count and student-teacher ratio came from Niche.

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This story was originally published by 24/7 Wall St., a news organization that produces real-time business commentary and data-driven reporting for state and local markets across the country.