Top RI High Schools: US News & World Report

Eleven Rhode Island high schools made U.S. News & World Report’s 2018 rankings of best high schools in the country. The Rhode Island list includes two gold medal schools, four silver medal schools and five bronze medal schools. Classical came out on top, and Barrington came in second. None of the Rhode Island schools ranked in the nation's top 200. Nationwide, Classical ranked 281st, and Barrington was 316th.

The 2018 best high school rankings were released on Wednesday and evaluate over 20,500 public high schools. U.S. News identified schools that best serve all students and assessed how prepared students are for college-level work. Schools are also recognized with gold, silver and bronze medals with gold indicating the greatest level of college readiness.

“Top-ranked schools succeed in three main areas: exceeding expectations on state proficiency tests, offering challenging coursework and graduating their students,” Anita Narayan, managing editor of Education at U.S. News, said in a press release.

Arizona schools dominated the list of top 10 U.S. high schools, with six schools represented. But Massachusetts is the top state. The state-by-state performance rating was based on which states have the highest proportion of schools with gold and silver medals. Bronze medal schools are not ranked by U.S. News. Based on this metric, Massachusetts was the leading performer, followed by California and Maryland. Compared to other states, Arizona's performance was rated 28th by U.S. News.

To determine the rankings, U.S. News teamed up with the social science research firm RTI International. A variety of data sources, including the Common Core of Data, College Board and the International Baccalaureate, were used.

A four-step process was used to rank all eligible schools. The first two steps were to determine whether students were performing better than statistically expected in the state and whether minority were performing at or better than the state average for minority students, which was the second step. The third step required schools to meet or surpass a certain graduation benchmark and the final step was to determine college readiness. (You can read the full methodology here.)

The top 10 high schools in the U.S. overall are:

1. BASIS Scottsdale (AZ)
2. BASIS Chandler (AZ)
3. BASIS Oro Valley (AZ)
4. BASIS Tucson North (AZ)
5. BASIS Flagstaff (AZ)
6. Meridian School (TX)
7. International Academy of Macomb (MI)
8. BASIS Peoria (AZ)
9. Baccalaureate School for Global Education (NY)
10. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (VA)

Here’s how Rhode Island’s top 11 schools finished according to place and medal in the 2018 rankings:

1. Classical (gold) 281st nationwide

2. Barrington (gold) 316th nationwide

3. Chariho (silver) 2,151st nationwide

4. North Smithfield (silver) 2,152nd nationwide

5. Paul Cuffee Charter School (silver) 2,341st nationwide

6. Mount Hope High (silver) 2,651st nationwide

7. Beacon Charter School (bronze) not ranked

8. Blackstone Academy Charter (bronze) not ranked

9. Blackstone Valley Prep (bronze) not ranked

10. Johnston Senior High (bronze) not ranked

11. West Warwick High (bronze) not ranked

Click here to see the full rankings and for more insight on the data.

Patch Staff contributed to this report.