For the tenth consecutive year, Hamilton High School was named to U.S. News & World Report “America’s Best High Schools” list. Hamilton is ranked 15th among 462 Wisconsin public high schools and 739th among 17,660 U.S. public high schools that made the ranking.
The ranking highlights the best public high schools in the nation after review of data to identify how well schools serve all students in preparing them in basic skills and readiness for college-level work.
Schools were ranked based on:
- college readiness – the proportion of 12th grade students who took and earned a qualifying score on at least one Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) exam (30% of ranking);
- state assessment proficiency – the aggregated scores on state assessments that students may be required to pass for graduation (20%);
- state assessment performance – whether performance on state assessments exceeded expectations given the school’s proportion of underserved students (20%);
- underserved student performance – how Black, Hispanic and low-income students performed on state assessments compared with those who are not underserved in the state (10%);
- college curriculum breadth – the proportions of 12th grade students who took and earned a qualifying score on AP or IB exams in multiple content areas (10%); and
- graduation rate – the proportion of students who entered ninth grade in 2018-19 and graduated four years later (10%).
“Moving up two spots from last year in the overall Wisconsin rankings to 15th is a testament to the commitment to continuous improvement by all Hamilton stakeholders – students, parent(s)/guardian(s), staff, and the community as a whole,” said Hamilton High School Principal Dominic Bauer. “Being new to the District and to my role, my top priority is to do my part to ensure our mission of ensuring each child has every opportunity for success is at the forefront of all of the work we collectively do. I believe prioritizing this will optimize our efforts to continue to get even better yet.”