North Royalton High School earned a silver medal in the U.S. News & World Report’s 2018 Best High Schools rankings, which is earned by only about 11% of high schools across the country. According to the study done by U.S. News & World Report, North Royalton High School ranked 114 in Ohio high schools, in a list containing 832 Ohio high schools. The national magazine reviewed 20,548 schools, where North Royalton ranked 2,031. The data was based on the 2015-2016 school year. The national rankings were based on a three-step process. The first two steps used state proficiency tests as benchmarks. The third step assessed how well the school prepared its students for college.
“A total of 5,948 highest-scoring schools were awarded gold, silver or bronze medals based on state proficiency standards and how well they prepare students for college,” according to U.S. News & World Report officials. The ratings were based on teacher-to-student ratio, college readiness, math and reading proficiency. U.S. News, and North Carolina-based RTI International coordinated the rankings. RTI International is a nonprofit social science research firm. According to U.S. News officials, the rankings were based on methodology “which is based on the key 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 the school is successfully educating its student body across a range of performance indicators.”
Nineteen Ohio schools earned a gold medal and 110 took silver. The top ranked Ohio school was Walnut Hills High School in Cincinnati. Hudson came in at #8, Brecksville-Broadview Heights ranked 26th, Independence was 62nd and Strongsville placed 95th.
The top five schools in the United States were all in Arizona, with BASIS Scottsdale taking first; BASIS Chandler taking second, BASIS Oro Valley, third; BASIS Tucson North fourth and BASIS Flagstaff fifth. All five are charter schools. The top public school that placed 9th in the national rankings, is Baccalaureate School for Global Education in Long Island City, New York.
“It’s nice to have national recognition,” said North Royalton School Superintendent, Greg Gurka, “but it’s how the local community feels about the schools that is more important to me.”

By GLORIA PLEVA KACIK
Contributing Writer