TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – There’s a new ranking on the internet. For the first time, U.S. News & World Report has narrowed down the best public high schools in every metropolitan area across the county.
In step from its annual state and local high school rankings, which 8 On Your Side shared last month, the digital news and information company released its inaugural metropolitan area ranking of Tampa Bay’s best high schools on Wednesday.
The list gathered data from every public high school in the country with a 12-grade enrollment of at least 15 students, eventually ranking 17,245 schools.
That’s more than six times the number of schools that were ranked last year, which was 2,700.
Sixty-seven of those schools are located in Tampa Bay’s Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando counties.
“We’ve heard from students, parents and school officials that they’re interested in seeing how their school compares with others in the community,” Robert Morse, chief data strategist at U.S. News, said in a statement. “With these new rankings, residents in more than 900 metro areas nationwide can see which local schools are succeeding at educating and graduating their students.”
Six different elements were examined to compile the rankings: college readiness based on seniors who took and passed AP and IB exams, math and reading proficiency, graduation rates, and the performance of minority and low-income students.
Check out the map below to see if your student’s high school made the top 10. For the full list, click here.
