Eight Fox Valley High Schools are ranked in the top 10% nationally, according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2022 Best High Schools report.
The new edition ranks more than 17,800 public high schools throughout the country, measuring how well schools serve students from various social and economic backgrounds.
“Families can use the Best High Schools rankings to see how schools compare at the national, state and local level on factors like graduation rates and college readiness,” said Anita Narayan, managing editor of Education at U.S. News. “The rankings also provide insight into academic performance among underserved groups.”
The methodology focuses on six factors: college readiness, reading and math proficiency, reading and math performance, underserved student performance, college curriculum breadth and graduation rates. College readiness specifically measures participation and performance on Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate exams.
Due to the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic across the country, U.S. News relied on historic assessment data from the three prior ranking years while also incorporating for the first time state science assessment data from the 2018-2019 school year to capture a broader measure of student learning. Specifically, an average of the following years and academic subjects were used: 2016-2017 math and reading assessment data; 2017-2018 math and reading assessment data; and 2018-2019 math, reading and science assessment data. Note that U.S. News only incorporated math and reading assessment data without science for Arizona, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Michigan and Tennessee; all other states had science data incorporated in their assessment ranking factors for 2018-2019.
The eight Fox Valley area high schools who made the top 10% nationally are listed below, along with their Illinois ranking.
- Neuqua Valley High School #417 Nationally (#17 in Illinois)
- Naperville Central High School #609 Nationally (#24 in Illinois)
- Metea Valley High School #627 Nationally (#26 in Illinois)
- St Charles North High School # 689 Nationally (#29 in Illinois)
- Naperville North High School #732 (#35 in Illinois)
- Waubonsie Valley High School #1,212 (#53 in Illinois)
- St. Charles East High School #1322 Nationally (#60 in Illinois)
- Geneva Community High School #1412 Nationally (#69 in Illinois)
Batavia Sr High School and Harry D. Jacobs High School both just missed the top 10% nationally, but came in in the top 100 in Illinois at #84 and #88, respectively.
Fox Valley Magazine is not responsible for any arguments between the students, parents, staff or management of area high schools as to the righteousness of these rankings. Our staff have no students attending high school currently. Even the photo above is neutral (it’s stock photography). All complaints should be addressed to U.S. News & World Report. (Please?)
