Redmond High School Shut Out of U.S. News and World Report Rankings

Redmond was shut out of the rankings this year in U.S. News and World Report's 2013 ranking of the Best High Schools, released Tuesday. 

Although Redmond ranked 13th last year and 548th nationwide, it was not among the nearly 600 schools in Washington ranked this year.

Shannon Parthemer, community relations and communications coordinator with Lake Washington School District, said she didn't know why Redmond fell out of the rankings.

"U.S. News has its own system for ranking schools, as described in their “methodology” section," she told Patch in an email. "They don’t share exactly how they come up with scores. We’re as puzzled as you are on this."  

For its rankings, U.S. News collected data on more than 21,000 public high schools from 49 states and the District of Columbia. (Nebraska did not report enough data to be included in the rankings.) From its release:

U.S. News joined forces with the American Institutes for Research, a Washington, D.C.-based organization, to evaluate schools on overall student performance on state-mandated assessments, as well as how effectively schools educated their black, Hispanic and economically disadvantaged students. Performance on Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate exams was then used to determine the degree to which schools prepare students for college-level work.

Schools were ranked within each state, as well as on a national stage, so families can see how their public high school stacked up against rivals within the community and across the country. In the national rankings, 500 schools earned gold medals, 1,790 were awarded silver and 2,515 took home bronze.

The top five high schools in Washington state, along with their national rankings, are:

See the full 2013 U.S. News Best High School rankings here.

What do you make of the rankings? Does it make a difference when choosing a high school for your child? Tell us in the comments.