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Loveless Academic Magnet School, Mountain Brook High School and New Century Tech High School are consistently ranked among Alabama’s best.
That doesn’t mean other metros in the state also don’t also have great schools. U.S. News and World Report recently released 2021 rankings of the top high schools in each of Alabama’s 26 metro areas.
Some of Alabama’s high schools are not located in a metro area, so these rankings only considered 286 out of the 374 high schools in the entire state. Criteria included measures related to college readiness and achievement, as well as how underserved students fared at the school compared to their non-underserved peers.
U.S. News released statewide rankings of all schools in April. Here’s where you can find the whole country’s metro-area rankings.
Related: Here are Alabama’s 2021 top high schools, U.S. News says
Here are the top high schools by metropolitan area. The link takes you to U.S. News’ website for more information about the school and the numbers behind the ranking.
Arab High School, Arab City Schools, Albertville metro area – 8 high schools
Dadeville High School, Tallapoosa County schools, Alexander City metro area – 4 high schools
Piedmont High School, Piedmont City schools, Anniston-Oxford-Jacksonville metro area – 11 high schools
T.R. Miller High School, Brewton City schools, Atmore metro area – 4 high schools
Auburn High School, Auburn City schools, Auburn-Opelika metro area – 6 high schools
Mountain Brook High School, Mountain Brook City School, Birmingham-Hoover metro area – 68 high schools
Cullman High School, Cullman City schools, Cullman metro area – 8 high schools
Fairhope High School, Baldwin County schools, Daphne-Fairhope-Foley metro area – 8 high schools
Hartselle High School, Hartselle City schools, Decatur metro area – 12 high schools
Headland High School, Henry County schools, Dothan metro area – 13 high schools
Enterprise High School, Enterprise City schoolsEnterprise metro area – 5 high schools
Alabama Virtual Academy at Eufaula City schools, Eufaula City schools, Eufaula metro area – 4 high schools
Muscle Shoals High School, Muscle Shoals City schools, Florence-Muscle Shoals metro area – 14 high schools
Fort Payne High School, Fort Payne City schools, Fort Payne metro area – 9 high schools
Glencoe High School, Etowah County schools, Gadsden metro area – 8 high schools
New Century Tech High School, Huntsville City schools, Huntsville metro area – 22 high schools
W.P. Davidson High School, Mobile County schools, Mobile metro area – 16 high schools
Loveless Academic Magnet Program High School, Montgomery County schools, Montgomery metro area – 19 high schools
George W. Long High School, Dale County schools, Ozark metro area – 5 high schools
Scottsboro High School, Scottsboro City schools, Scottsboro metro area – 7 high schools
Selma metro area saw a four-way tie among the four high schools: Selma High School, Selma City Schools; Dallas County High School, Dallas County schools; Keith Middle-High School, Dallas County schools; Southside High School, Dallas County schools
Fayetteville High School, Talladega County schools, Talladega-Sylacauga metro area – 10 high schools
Pike County High School, Pike County schools, Troy metro area – 3 high schools
Northridge High School, Tuscaloosa City schools, Tuscaloosa metro area – 14 high schools
Lanett Senior High School, Lanett City schools, Valley metro area – 3 high schools
Rankings of all Alabama high schools can be found at this link.
Here’s a breakdown of how the scores were calculated.
· College readiness (30%), which includes the proportion of seniors who took and earned a qualifying score on Advanced Placement and/or International Baccalaureate exams at some point during their high school career,
· Reading and math proficiency (20%), from testing in the 2018-19 school year
· Reading and math performance (20%), calculated as expected performance given a school’s student body characteristics,
· Underserved student performance (10%), evaluating how well an underserved subgroup scored on state assessments compared with the average for non-underserved students among schools in the same state,
· College curriculum breadth (10%), calculated as the percentage of seniors in 2018-19 who took and passed multiple AP/IB exams, and
· Graduation rates (10%) based on the 2018-19 school year.