MEDIA RELEASE

U.S. News & World Report, the leading source of education rankings and news, has released its 2013 Best High Schools rankings.

The new rankings include comprehensive profiles on more than 21,000 public high schools and rankings of the nation’s 4,805 highest-scoring schools.

The report awards bronze medals to 11 Hawaii high schools, including four on the Big Island: Keaau, Kealakehe, Kohala and Pahoa High & Intermediate.

The 2013 Best High Schools, available exclusively online, includes school-specific data on location, enrollment, ethnicity, school type and results of state assessment proficiency tests and Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate tests.

Using some of this data and a comprehensive methodology, U.S. News gave each school a college readiness index score, then numerically ranked and awarded gold, silver and bronze medals.

Along with the national rankings, U.S. News released new statewide rankings, as well as new rankings for the nation’s Best Charter Schools and Best Magnet Schools.

“A good high school education is vital to preparing a student for moving on to college or to entering the workforce,” said Brian Kelly, editor and chief content officer of U.S. News & World Report. “The new 2013 Best High Schools rankings will help both students and parents wade through the increasing public school options available.”

To produce the 2013 Best High Schools, U.S. News teamed up with the Washington, D.C.-based American Institutes for Research (AIR), one of the largest behavioral and social science research organizations in the world.

AIR implemented U.S. News’s comprehensive rankings methodology, which reflects how well high schools serve all of their students, not just those who are planning to go to college.

The methodology to determine the nation’s best public high schools is comprised of three steps. The first two steps ensure that the schools serve all their students well, by using the state proficiency standards as the measuring benchmark.

For schools that make it past the first two steps, a third is used to assess “college readiness,” or the degree to which schools prepare their students in both participation in and passing of college-level course work using the Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate tests as the standard.

2013 Best High Schools Rankings

* School for the Talented and Gifted (TX)

* BASIS Tucson (AZ)

* Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science and Technology (GA)

* Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (VA)

* BASIS Scottsdale (AZ)

* Pine View School (FL)

* Loveless Academic Magnet Program High School (AL)

* Biotechnology High School (NJ)

* International School (WA)

* Academic Magnet High School (SC)

* Media Contact: Alexi Turbow, aturbow@usnews.com

Notable Hawaii Schools

* Education Laboratory Public Charter School, Honolulu

* James Campbell High School, Ewa Beach

* Kalani High School, Honolulu

* Keaau High School, Keaau

* Kealakehe High School, Kailua-Kona

* King Kekaulike High School, Pukalani

* Kohala High School, Kapaau

* Mililani High School, Mililani

* Pahoa High & Intermediate School, Pahoa

* President William McKinley High School, Honolulu

— Find out more:
www.usnews.com/best-high-schools.
www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/hawaii