PROVIDENCE – Classical High School, Barrington High School and East Greenwich High School held onto their respective rankings as being the top-three public high schools in Rhode Island, with the Providence-based high school inching higher in the national U.S. News & World Report’s 2020 Best High Schools rankings that were released Tuesday.
The schools were evaluated based on college readiness, reading and math proficiency and performance, underserved student performance, college curriculum breadth and graduation rates. The news outlet also evaluated more than 17,700 public high schools across the country.
Both Classical and Barrington remain as the only two high schools in the Ocean State to be in the top 500 nationally. Classical improved its ranking going from No. 168 last year to No. 132 this year, while Barrington dropped slightly year to year from No. 189 in 2019 to No. 199. East Greenwich also declined in the national rankings, coming in at No. 686 this year – it was No. 655 in 2019.
East Greenwich also is the lone Rhode Island-based school ranked nationally this year for STEM high schools, placing No. 249 overall. Last year, Barrington ranked No. 182 for STEM (science, technology, engineering and math).
Portsmouth High School (No. 719 nationally) and Blackstone Valley Prep Mayoral Academy High School in Cumberland (No. 991 nationally) rounds out the top five public high schools in Rhode Island, according to U.S. News & World Report. North Kingstown, ranked No. 4 in the state last year, dropped to No. 7 in the state this year (No. 1,619 nationally), and North Smithfield High School’s state ranking declined from No. 5 in 2019 to No. 11 in 2020 (No. 2,807 nationally).
Blackstone Valley Prep was the top-ranked charter school in Rhode Island at No. 173 nationally, followed by Providence-based Paul Cuffee Charter School (No. 491 nationally for charters), Providence-based Times2 Academy (No. 566), Blackstone Academy Charter School of Pawtucket (No. 679 nationally) and Trinity Academy for the Performing Arts in Providence (No. 913).
Rhode Island, based on school performance compared to other states, ranked tied for No. 12 with Nevada and New York for having 30.4% of schools ranked in the top 25% nationally. Rhode Island has 7.1% of schools ranked in the top 5% and 12.5% of schools in the top 10%.
Massachusetts retains its No. 1 national ranking by having 49.6% of its schools ranked in the top 25% nationally, with 8.7% of schools in the top 5% and 21.7% of schools in the top 10%.
Connecticut moved up to No. 3 nationally this year, and New Hampshire rose to No. 16. Vermont dropped from No. 7 last year to No. 8 this year, and Maine saw the biggest decline of the New England states. It went from No. 11 in 2019 to last out of all states and Washington, D.C.
A full breakdown on how the local schools rank is found on the U.S. News & World Report’s website.
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
