Which high schools are best and worst in Columbus area? U.S. News releases 2022 rankings
Columbus High School is the second-best public high school in Georgia for the second straight year, according to a national ranking released Tuesday.
The U.S. News & World Report’s 2022 Best High Schools list ranks Columbus High, a liberal arts magnet school, behind only Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science and Technology in Georgia.
For the 2022 rankings, the magazine evaluated more than 17,800 public high schools.
Compared to last year, the national rankings among the 15 ranked high schools in the Bi-City area:
- Increased for six of them.
- Decreased for five of them.
- Were undisclosed for four of them because they still are ranked in the bottom 25%.
“Our methodology was designed to distinguish the best high schools, which is why we only publish the individual ranks for the top 75%,” U.S. News spokeswoman Madeline Smanik told the Ledger-Enquirer in an email.
Marion County had the largest local increase, up by 1,370 spots to 9,633. Central-Phenix City had the largest local decrease, down by 1,966 spots to 7,097.
Here are the local rankings, listed by their state ranking, with their national ranking in parentheses and how they compare to last year’s list:
Georgia high school rankings
- 2. Columbus (83), stayed the same in state, up by 9 in nation
- 87. Northside (3,921), up by 10 in state, up by 252 in nation
- 158. Harris County (7,215), down by 7 in state, down by 521 in nation
- 191. Hardaway (8,325), up by 20 in state, up by 952 in nation
- 208. Shaw (9,117), down by 15 in state, down by 531 in nation
- 223. Marion County (9,633), up by 29 in state, up by 1,370
- 286. Carver (12,288), down by 19 in state, down by 855 in nation
- 311-414. Chattahoochee County (13,383-17,843), down by at least 7 in state, down by at least 671, but exact figure unclear because rankings for bottom 25% aren’t disclosed
- 311-414. Central-Talbotton, Jordan, Kendrick and Spencer (13,383-17,843), remained the same in state and nation.
Rainey-McCullers wasn’t ranked because it didn’t have enough students to qualify.
Alabama high school rankings
- 94. Central-Phenix City (7,097), down by 28 in state, down by 1,966 in nation
- 188. Smiths Station (9,816), up by 39 in state, up by 1,017 in nation
- 195. Russell County (10,051), up by 37 in state, up by 1,095 in nation.
Rankings for the schools ranked 245-361 in Alabama weren’t disclosed.
U.S. News high school rankings methodology
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 is defined by participation and performance on Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate exams. Underserved student performance measures the achievement of students who are Black, Hispanic or from low-income households.
For the first time, science proficiency and performance also were incorporated into the methodology for states where science assessment data was available.
U.S. News normally uses school assessment data from the states that is two years older than the ranking year. But the 2019-2020 state assessment data wasn’t available because of the COVID-19 pandemic disruption of schools, so U.S. News used assessment data from the three previous years while incorporating for the first time state science assessment data from the 2018-2019 school year to capture a broader measure of student learning.
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.
Ranking factors pertaining to graduation rates and college readiness incorporated 2019-2020 cohorts. This means half of the calculations used completely new data for the 2022 rankings, U.S. News says.
This story was originally published April 26, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
