Each year, national magazine, U.S. News and World Report lists the best high schools across the United States and District of Columbia. According to US News officials, “Schools are ranked on their performance on state-required tests, graduation and how well they prepare students for college.” They base their methodology distribution as follows: 30% College Readiness; 20% Math and Reading Proficiency; 20% Math and Reading Performance; 10% Underserved Student Performance; 10% College Curriculum Breadth and 10% Graduation Rate. (The data shown from U.S. News did not include a graduation rate for North Royalton High School.)
This year, according to the data collected by U.S. News & World Report, North Royalton High School ranked 127 in Ohio high schools, in a list containing 745 districts and 916 Ohio high schools. The five top ranked Ohio high schools this year were Walnut Hills High School in Cincinnati; Wyoming High School in Wyoming; Indian Hill High School in Cincinnati; Bexley High School in Bexley and Ottawa High School in Toledo. The national magazine reviewed more than 17,245 public high schools, collected from data on more than 23,000 public high schools in fifty states and the District of Columbia. The overall score was 78.5. North Royalton High School is ranked 3,536th in the National Rankings. A new addition in this year’s rankings included the high school rankings within metropolitan areas. North Royalton High School is ranked 23rd in the Cleveland Metropolitan area.
According to the US News data, the total enrollment at the North Royalton High School at the time of this ranking was approximately 1,552 students, which broke down to about 375 in each of the four grades, nine through twelve. There were 79 full time teachers. The student-teacher ratio was twenty to one. The total minority enrollment is 11%, and 14% of students are economically disadvantaged. Of the gender distribution, 48% of the students are female.
North Royalton students have the opportunity to take Advanced Placement course work and exams. The Advanced Placement participation rate at the High School is 33%. Of the North Royalton High School students, 25% passed at least one Advanced Placement exam. The Advanced Placement exam pass rate was 74%. The Mathematics Proficiency scored at 65% and Reading Proficiency scored at 73%.
On the overall student performance on state-required tests, North Royalton High School scored 80.4% on the Ohio Graduation Tests and met expectations. On college readiness, North Royalton High School scored 76% on National Percentile on college-level exams. “U.S. News calculated a College Readiness Index based on AP/IB exam participation rates and percentages of students passing at least one AP/IB exam,” according to US News officials.
“My focus is on the communities of North Royalton and Broadview Heights and how they feel about their schools,” said North Royalton School Superintendent Greg Gurka. “This is reflected in the District’s Quality Profile published each September that focuses not only on our academic achievements, but those areas not measured such as the arts, student leadership and activities, fiscal stewardship, parent and community involvement, and pupil services.”
By GLORIA PLEVA KACIK
Contributing Writer