Education analysts sometimes question school rankings, saying they just mirror community wealth statistics. Of the schools U.S. News ranked as its top 10 in Ohio, all but one are in districts that rank in the top 5 percent of the state in median income. The one outlier, Walnut Hills, only admits students who score high on an entrance exam.
Area schools in the top 60 were Kings (51) and Springboro (53) in Warren County, and Lakota East (59) and Lakota West (60) in Butler County.
Earning the top five spots in Ohio were: Ottawa Hills near Toledo; Walnut Hills in Cincinnati; Bexley, east of Columbus; Solon, near Cleveland; and Indian Hill in Cincinnati, according to the list.
Rounding out the top 10 were: Wyoming, near Cincinnati; Chagrin Falls, east of Cleveland; Cincinnati’s Mariemont; Dublin Jerome, near Columbus; and Mason.
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Last year, U.S. News ranked Oakwood 7th of the 736 Ohio public high schools. Others in the top 60 in 2019 were Brookville (47th), Springboro at 53rd, Bellbrook at 55th, Centerville at 57th and Waynesville at 59th.
Other area schools ranked this year included: Waynesville at 62, Centerville at 64, Bellbrook at 66, Stivers School of the Arts in Dayton at 73, Brookville at 77, and Ross in Butler County at 78.
Ninety percent of the rankings were based on some form of test scores, including Advanced Placement exams and state math and English tests, according to U.S. News. That data includes how a school’s minority and low-income students did on those tests. The last 10 percent is based on four-year graduation rate.
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