Newsweek’s Top Public High Schools 2016: 4 Virginia Schools Rank Among Best

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

A Virginia school was, again, the top school in the country, with No. 1 ranked Thomas Jefferson High School in the Fairfax County School District near Alexandria taking the honors.

Another Fairfax County school was included in the list, with West Springfield High finishing at No. 394.

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 objective measurements to put together the annual ranking of the country’s best high schools.

Here are the Virginia school rankings among Newsweek's Top High Schools 2016:

1. Thomas Jefferson HS for Science and Technology, Alexandria

394. West Springfield High School, Springfield

413. Western Albemarle, Crozet

453. Grassfield High School, Chesapeake

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 Virginia schools among those that "Beat the Odds:"

12. Thomas Jefferson HS for Science and Technology, Alexandria

303. Richmond Community High School, Richmond

346. Galileo High School, Danville

413. Radford High School, Radford

476. Virginia High School, Bristol

494. Grassfield High School, Chesapeake

See the complete list at Newsweek.

Thomas Jefferson 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.