U.S. News Ranks Hopkins 14th Best High School In State

U.S. News & World Report named the 14th best high school in Minnesota, netting the school a silver medal in the 2012 rankings released Tuesday.

The , which ranked 31st in the state, also received a silver medal. , which was not ranked, received a bronze medal.

U.S. News compiled the rankings—in partnership with Washington, DC-based American Institutes for Research—using a three-part process to evaluate nearly 22,000 public high schools across the country. Minnesota had 145 schools make the rankings.

The first two steps use state proficiency tests to evaluate whether students perform better than statistically expected—factoring in the percentage of economically disadvantaged students and the performance of groups that tend to struggle, such as blacks, Hispanics and low-income students.

The final step examines college readiness using Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate tests. That portion of the score is based on both the participation rates for those programs and how well the students performed on the tests.

Most of the data comes from the 2009-10 school year.

Schools that scored in the top 500 in the country for college readiness received gold medals. Silver medals go to schools ranked 501 through 2,008. Schools receive bronze awards if they pass the first two steps but fall below the median in college readiness scoring or don’t offer AP or IB courses.

Hopkins ranked No. 628 nationally. It scored above the state average in math and reading proficiency and in college readiness.

The Main Street School of Performing Arts scored 1,205th nationally. It also had above-average levels of math and reading proficiency and college readiness.

Ubah Medical Academy was near the Minnesota average in math proficiency and below the average in reading proficiency. It was not ranked in college readiness because it didn’t meet the threshold necessary to be evaluated.

Southwest High School in Minneapolis was the state’s top school, ranking 163rd nationally. Neighboring schools that did well include , , and Eden Prairie at No. 20.

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