Looking at Stats of the Best High Schools for Math and Science Rankings

U.S.News & World Report just released its first-ever rankings of the Best High Schools for Math and Science in the United States. 

In order to do the rankings, we first looked at the nearly 600 schools that qualified for the Gold, Silver, and Honorable Mention lists on the current U.S. News Best High Schools, published in December 2009. For those schools, we then evaluated the 2008 graduates' participation rates and performance on AP® exams in math and science.

The ranking of the top 208 high schools is based on the key principle that students at the Best High Schools for Math and Science must take and pass a robust curriculum of college-level math and science STEM courses. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and math.

[Read all about the rankings methodology for the Best High Schools for Math and Science.]

Here's a closer look at some of the key characteristics of the top 208 Best High Schools for Math and Science:

The top 10 states with the most high schools in the rankings:

1. California: 40 schools

2. New York: 30

3. Illinois: 15

4. Massachusetts:13

4. Texas: 13

6. New Jersey: 11

7. Florida: 8

8. North Carolina: 7

9. Maryland: 6

9. Virginia: 6

9. Washington: 6

Number of states with high schools in the rankings: 33

Number of high schools in the suburbs: 108

Number of high schools in a city: 82

Number of high schools in a rural location: 16

Number of high schools that are public charter schools: 15

Number of high schools that are magnet schools: 21

Number of high schools that have an application and use a merit-based selection: 50

Number of high schools that have application and use a non-merit-based selection: 21

Number of high schools that are open enrollment: 137

Largest high school: Adlai E. Stevenson High School (IL), ranked No. 62 (tie)

Smallest high school: School for Advanced Studies—North Campus (FL), ranked No. 147 (tie)

School with the largest percentage of economically disadvantages students: High School for Dual Language and Asian Studies (NY), ranked No. 188 (tie)

School with the largest percentage of minority enrollment: IDEA Academy & College Preparatory (TX), ranked No. 62 (tie)

Reader Comments Read all comments (4)

Add Your Thoughts

Comment Name State Select One AL AK AZ AR CA CO CT DE DC FL GA HI ID IL IN IA KS KY LA ME MD MA MI MN MS MO MT NE NV NH NJ NM NY NC ND OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VT VA WA WV WI WY International Email

Please enter the two words below into the text field underneath the image.

Incorrect please try again

Enter the words above: Enter the numbers you hear:

Your comment will be posted immediately, unless it is spam or contains profanity. For more information, please see our Comments FAQ.