Ranked: Richmond's best high schools
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The two best public high schools in the Richmond region are once again in the city of Richmond, according to U.S. News & World Report's latest national ranking of public high schools, out last week.
Why it matters: County schools often perform better than city schools using education performance metrics like average test scores and graduation rates.
State of play: Open High School and Richmond Community High School, both part of Richmond Public Schools, out-ranked every other high school in the Richmond region on U.S. News' annual list.
- Open High landed among the top 100 in the nation.
- Both are considered RPS specialty schools and require students to apply for admission.
- And both were the only schools in the region to boast a 100% graduation rate.
How it works: The rankings are based on college readiness, state assessments, graduation rates, underserved student performance and more.
The intrigue: Maggie Walker Governor's School, a regional magnet school in the city that's widely considered to be one of the best schools in the region, wasn't included in the rankings.
- Thomas Jefferson, a magnet school in Alexandria, was ranked the best in the state and fifth best in the nation.
Zoom in: Here's how U.S. News ranked and scored RVA's 10 best public high schools, listed in order of their Richmond ranking:
Open High, No. 2 in Virginia, No. 62 nationally
- AP participation rate: 100%
- Reading proficiency: 98%
- Mathematics proficiency :92%
- Science proficiency: 95%
- Graduation rate: 100%
Richmond Community, No. 4 in Virginia, No. 164 nationally
- AP participation rate: 100%
- Reading proficiency: 100%
- Mathematics proficiency :85%
- Science proficiency: 93%
- Graduation rate: 100%
Deep Run (Henrico), No. 13 in Virginia, No. 531 nationally
- AP participation rate: 72%
- Reading proficiency: 96%
- Mathematics proficiency :89%
- Science proficiency: 89%
- Graduation rate: 96%
Godwin (Henrico), No. 21 in Virginia, No. 1,103 nationally
- AP participation rate: 52%
- Reading proficiency: 94%
- Mathematics proficiency :89%
- Science proficiency: 87%
- Graduation rate: 93%
Midlothian (Chesterfield), No. 34 in Virginia, No. 1,778 nationally
- AP participation rate: 56%
- Reading proficiency: 95%
- Mathematics proficiency: 91%
- Science proficiency: 83%
- Graduation rate: 96%
Glen Allen (Henrico), No. 38 in Virginia, No. 1,896 nationally
- AP participation rate: 54%
- Reading proficiency: 92%
- Mathematics proficiency: 85%
- Science proficiency: 83%
- Graduation rate: 94%
Atlee (Hanover), No. 42 in Virginia, No. 1,968 nationally
- AP participation rate: 51%
- Reading proficiency: 93%
- Mathematics proficiency: 91%
- Science proficiency: 85%
- Graduation rate: 97%
Cosby (Chesterfield), No. 46 in Virginia, No. 2,134 nationally
- AP participation rate: 47%
- Reading proficiency: 97%
- Mathematics proficiency: 88%
- Science proficiency: 83%
- Graduation rate: 99%
Franklin Military Academy (RPS speciality school), No. 50 in Virginia, No. 2,265 nationally
- AP participation rate: 100%
- Reading proficiency: 97%
- Mathematics proficiency: 67%
- Science proficiency: 96%
- Graduation rate: 97%
Freeman (Henrico), No. 66 in Virginia, No. 3,379 nationally
- AP participation rate: 49%
- Reading proficiency: 86%
- Mathematics proficiency: 86%
- Science proficiency: 74%
- Graduation rate: 85%