Newsweek’s Top Public High Schools 2016: 11 Maryland Schools Among Best

ANNAPOLIS, MD — Newsweek released its list of the best public high schools in the country Thursday morning.

There are several different school rankings published, particularly as school bells are dusted off in late summer. Newsweek consistently stands out as a college-prep barometer and rankings are routinely promoted by schools and school districts that perform well, and coveted by those that don't.

Newsweek's school rankings are borne of the magazine's research, along with the analytics firm Westat. They use legitimate and objective measurements to put together the annual ranking of the country’s best high schools.

At the top of the Maryland state rankings, again, was Poolesville High from Montgomery County at No. 32. Bethesda's Walter Johnson High wasn't far behind at No. 72.

Here's the list of Maryland schools among Newsweek's Top High Schools 2016:

32. Poolesville High School, Poolesville

72. Walter Johnson High School, Bethesda

173. River Hill High School, Clarksville

185. Eastern Technical High School, Baltimore

190. Marriotts Ridge High School, Marriottsville

220. George Washington Carver Center for Arts and Technology, Towson

263. Mt. Hebron High School, Ellicott City

273. Glenelg High School, Glenelg

315. Atholton High School, Columbia

338. Towson High School, Towson

474. Middletown High School, Middletown

See the complete list at Newsweek.

So, how do they come up with the rankings?

Newsweek looked at six measurements and weighted them to come up with a “college readiness index.” The rankings are meant to show how well high schools do at preparing students for college.

Those measurements and their weight are:

• Holding power: 10 percent
• Ratio of counselor/full-time equivalent to student enrollment: 10 percent
• Weighted SAT/ACT: 17.5 percent
• Weighted AP/IB/dual enrollment composite: 17.5 percent
• Graduation rate: 20 percent
• College enrollment rate: 25 percent

In all, 6,477 of the nation’s 15,819 public high schools met the criteria to be considered in Newsweek’s rankings.

Newsweek used school performance data from the National Center for Education Statistics to narrow down the list of schools.

Of those 6,477 schools, 4,760 were considered for the overall rankings, while 4,452 made the cut for another list of schools that were “beating the odds.” (Many schools made both lists.)

For the the “beating the odds” rankings, a school’s college readiness scores were adjusted for how they compared against other schools that had similar percentages of students eligible for free or reduced lunch.

Here are the Maryland schools among those that "Beat the Odds:"

122. Eastern Technical High School, Baltimore

162. Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, Baltimore

See the complete list at Newsweek.

Thomas Jefferson High School in Alexandria, Va., took the top spot again in 2016 for a third year in a row. The school has been a regular powerhouse on previous best schools rankings and puts an emphasis on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics classes.

“We’re preparing kids to go into fields that have yet to be invented,” Principal Evan Glazer told Newsweek last year. “We’re really focusing more on skills and an appreciation for STEM. But if they decide to become journalists, we convey that they have a unique knowledge base in STEM. They would be able to contribute to articles on energy, the environment, and government policy on those important issues.”

You can view last year’s 2015 rankings here.