Mercer Island High School continues to receive a gold medal ranking among the nation’s Best High Schools in the 2018 annual rankings by U.S. News and World Report for student achievement.
Mercer Island is ranked ninth among Washington state high schools, and 471st nationally out of 28,800 high schools in the United States. Gold medal recognition was given to only 500 of the nation’s high schools this year by U.S. News. Schools are ranked based on their performance on state-required tests and how well they prepare students for college.
MIHS was also ranked 134th among the nation’s Best High Schools for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). This ranking was based on the key principle that students at these schools must participate in and pass a robust curriculum of college-level math and science courses.
To create the 2018 Best High Schools rankings, U.S. News worked with RTI International, a North Carolina-based research firm. High schools were evaluated in four areas:
- Overall student performance on state assessments;
- How effectively schools educated their low-income and minority students;
- Graduation rate; and
- College readiness.
High schools that made it through this analysis were then eligible to be ranked nationally. U.S. News determines the degree to which schools prepare students for college-level work by analyzing student success in Advanced Placement (AP), which includes college-level courses.
