For the eleventh consecutive year, Hamilton High School was named to the U.S. News & World Report “America’s Best High Schools” list. Hamilton is ranked 16th among 462 Wisconsin public high schools and 918th among nearly 18,000 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.
“Students and families need data to help them make one of the most important decisions of their academic journey. Our Best High Schools rankings provide the insights to help them identify schools that will prepare students for college success,” says LaMont Jones, Ed.D., managing editor for education at U.S. News. “Access to information isn’t just helpful, it’s essential for planning a student’s future.”
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 the 2019-2020 academic year and graduated four years later (10%).