U.S. News Best High Schools 2019: Broomfield Schools Make List

BROOMFIELD, CO – Several Broomfield high schools were ranked among the best in America, U.S. News & World Report said Tuesday in its most comprehensive ranking yet of the nation’s high schools. More than 17,000 schools are ranked, an increase from 2,700 last year.

JeffCo's D'Evelyn Junior-Senior High School was the biggest winner in the Colorado rankings this year. D'Evelyn ranked No. 1 among 217 top Colorado high schools and 131st nationally in the 2019 U.S. News Best High Schools rankings. The school also ranked 122nd for STEM education. The magazine praised D'Evelyn for high-AP class participation, where 82 percent of students took AP classes in the 2018-2019 school year. The total minority enrollment at D'Evelyn is 24 percent.

D'Evelyn, while located in Denver, is part of the Jefferson County School District.

Broomfield's Legacy High School, Jefferson Charter Academy Senior High School, Jefferson Charter Academy Junior High School and Broomfield High School all were ranked among the top 217 high schools in Colorado. Standley Lake High School in Westminster also made the list.

• Legacy High School (Adams 12 5Star SD)
  
  • Rank in Colorado: 26
• Jefferson Charter Academy Senior High School (JeffCo SD, Broomfield)
  • Rank in Colorado: 53
  • Charter school rank: 311
• Jefferson Charter Academy Junior High School (JeffCo SD, Broomfield)
  • Rank in Colorado: 77
  • Charter school rank: 415
• Broomfield High School (Boulder Valley SD)
  
  • Rank in Colorado: 88
• Standley Lake High School (JeffCo SD, Westminster)
  
  • Rank in Colorado: 90

Overall, Colorado’s schools graduate 93 percent of students.

U.S. News & World Report is the gold standard for education rankings and is widely considered the global authority. Anita Narayan, managing editor of education at U.S. News, said the aim of the rankings is to give families more information about the schools in their district.

“By evaluating more schools than ever before, the new edition expands that focus so all communities can see which schools in their area are successfully serving their students — including historically underserved populations,” Narayan said in a news release.

The factors considered in compiling the list include college readiness; reading and math proficiency; reading and math performance; underserved student performance; college curriculum breadth; and graduation rates. College readiness measures participation and performance on advanced placement and international baccalaureate exams.

The data also take into account school enrollment, student diversity, participation in free and reduced-price meal programs, graduation rates and the results of state assessment tests. U.S. News worked with the global research firm RTI International to rank the schools.

“We enhanced the methodology to provide an even more comprehensive ranking that is easier to understand and, therefore, more useful to parents and educators,” Robert Morse, chief data strategist at U.S. News, said in a news release. “Now, each school’s score correlates to its national percentile — a school with a score of 70 is in the 70th percentile and ranks higher than 70 percent of schools. Going forward, this methodology will allow for intuitive comparisons of a school’s performance year after year."

The top 10 schools are in 10 different states, demonstrating that a high-quality education can be found across the country, the report said. Those schools are:

1. Academic Magnet High School, South Carolina
2. Maine School of Science and Mathematics
3. BASIS Scottsdale, Arizona
4. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Virginia
5. Central Magnet School, Tennessee
6. Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science and Technology, Georgia
7. Haas Hall Academy, Arkansas
8. International Academy of Macomb, Michigan
9. Payton College Preparatory High School, Illinois
10. Signature School, Indiana

The top 10 schools in Colorado were listed as:

1. D'Evelyn Junior/Senior High School (JeffCo SD, Denver)
2. Denver School of the Arts (DPS)
3. The Vanguard School (Cheyenne Mountain SD, Colorado Springs)
4. Peak to Peak Charter School (Boulder Valley SD, Lafayette)
5. Crested Butte Community School (Gunnison Watershed SD)
6. Liberty Common Charter School (Poudre SD, Fort Collins)
7. KIPP Denver Collegiate High School(DPS)
8. Strive Prep - Smart Academy (DPS)
9. STEM Middle and High School (Douglas County SD, Highlands Ranch)
10. Fairview High School (Boulder Valley SD, Boulder)

In the state-by-state performance, based on the number of high schools in the top 25 percent of national rankings, Massachusetts was the leader. This year, nearly half — 48.8 percent — of the commonwealth’s high schools were ranked in the top 25 percent of high schools. Maryland was second with 43.7 percent, followed by California, with 40 percent, and Connecticut, with 39.8 percent in the top 25 percent of schools ranked nationally.

Overall, only seven states had more than a third of their schools in the top 25 percent, and 20 states had 25 percent or more of their schools in the top 25 percent.

On the other end of the spectrum, 22 states had fewer than 20 percent of their high schools in the top 25 percent, and seven had fewer than 10 percent of schools in the top tier. South Dakota’s schools finished at the bottom of the list since it was the only state that didn’t give U.S. News permission to use advanced placement data in the rankings. Even so, 1.9 percent of South Dakota’s schools finished in the top 25 percent of rankings.

The full list is available exclusively on usnews.com.

By Beth Dalbey, Patch National Staff