All five Blue Valley high schools earned “top 10” recognition on U.S. News and World Report’s 2022 Best High Schools list for the state of Kansas.
Bigger picture: Blue Valley is the only district in Kansas to have more than one — let alone all its schools — ranked in the state’s top 10.
Official rankings: According to U.S. News and World Report, when comparing all public high schools in Kansas, this is where each Blue Valley school landed:
- Blue Valley North #2
- Blue Valley High #5
- Blue Valley West #6
- Blue Valley Northwest #7
- Blue Valley Southwest #9
Sumner Academy in Kansas City, Kansas, was tapped as the top-ranked school in the state by the report.
The report does not take private schools into consideration.
The metrics: U.S. News and World Report this year issued state-by-state rankings of more than 24,000 public high schools using a variety of metrics.
According to the publication, the primary six factors it assessed schools on were:
- College readiness, based on the proportion of 12th grade students who took and earned a qualifying score on at least one Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate exam (30% of ranking).
- State assessment proficiency, based on aggregated scores on state assessments that students may be required to pass for graduation (20%).
- State assessment performance, based on whether performance on state assessments exceeded expectations given the school’s proportion of underserved students (20%).
- Underserved student performance, based on 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, based on proportions of 12th grade students who took and earned a qualifying score on AP and/or IB exams in multiple content areas (10%).
- Graduation rate, based on the proportion of students who entered ninth grade in 2016-2017 and graduated four years later (10%).
Key quote: “From early childhood to high school and beyond, our schools share a common commitment to meaningful and extraordinary educational opportunities for students. Having all five of our high schools recognized in the Kansas top 10 affirms that our schools are preparing students for continued success in the next phase of their lives,” district officials said in a statement.
