ITHACA, N.Y. — Ithaca High School and Lansing High School made it to U.S. News & World Report’s list of top high schools in the country and ranked high among Central New York schools.
Ithaca High School ranked highest among high schools in Central New York, according to Syracuse.com. Compared to all of New York State, Ithaca High School ranked No. 48 and nationally at No. 401. Ithaca High School has a 95 percent graduation rate and a 60.2 college readiness score.
Lansing High School ranked as No. 70 in New York and No. 686 nationally. Lansing also has a 95 percent graduation rate and received a score of 50.8 for college readiness.
College readiness is measured based on the school’s Advanced Placement test participation rate and how well the students performed on those tests.
To come up with its list of best high schools, U.S. News worked with North Carolina-based RTI International to create a rankings methodology based on the following principles: “that a great high school must serve all of its students well, not just those who are college-bound, and that it must be able to produce measurable academic outcomes to show it is successfully educating its student body across a range of performance indicators.”
U.S. News ranked schools by examining four questions:
- Are students performing better than statistically expected for students in that state?
- Are disadvantaged students, including black, Hispanic and low-income students, performing at or better than the state average for the least-advantaged students?
- Did the school meet or surpass a benchmark for graduation rate?
- Are students college-ready? (U.S. News looked at Advanced Placement test data)
U.S. News reviewed 28,496 public high schools, and 391 made the rankings in New York.
Read the full list of best high schools here.
Featured image: 2015 Ithaca High School graduation. Jeff Stein/File Photo