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Lake-Lehman High School got local bragging rights in the newest high school rankings released by U.S. News & World Report, but generally Luzerne County schools posted middling marks.
Lake-Lehman scored 72.77 out of a possible 100, good enough to rank 192 in Pennsylvania (among 673 schools reviewed), and good enough to rank 4,782 out of 17,245 high schools reviewed nationally.
Dallas was second highest in the county with an overall score of 66.81, ranking 230th in the state and 5,723rd nationally. Crestwood was third highest locally with a 53.47 score and a state ranking of 327. Nationally Crestwood sat at 8,024.
Going down the list from there:
Pittston Area hit 375th in the state and 9,208th nationwide with a score of 46.6.
Wyoming Area came in at 385 state and 9,455 nationally with a score of 45.17.
Coughlin High School in Wilkes-Barre Area was 401st in the state and 9,850th nationally with a score of 42.88.
Northwest Area landed at 425 in the state and 10,438 in the nation with a score of 39.47.
Hazleton Area was 441st statewide and 10,769th nationally, scoring 37.55.
Meyers High School in Wilkes-Barre sat at 504 in the state and 12,563 in the nation, scoring 27.15.
While that may sound low, four county schools fell below that, though U.S. News didn’t give ranking details for schools in the bottom 25 percent. Scores are not provided for those schools, and their rankings are given only as the bottom range: 516-673 in the state and 12,935-17,245 in the nation.
The four local high schools in that range: Greater Nanticoke Area, Hanover Area, Wyoming Valley West and GAR Memorial in Wilkes-Barre Area.
U.S. News uses data clumped into six categories, counting each category as a percent of final score. So for example, “college readiness” makes up 30 percent of the total score and looks at the percent of 12th grade students who took an Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate course, and the percentage who passed at least one exam from those courses. Passing is three times more important in the ranking than taking the course.
Other categories and their percentage of the final score: College curriculum breadth (taking a wide variety of AP or IB courses), 10 percent; reading and math proficiency (as measured by state tests), 20 percent; reading and math performance (actual test results compared to predicted results for similar demographics) 20 percent; performance of undeserved students (how different demographic groups score on tests compared to students not in those groups), 10 percent; graduation rate, 10 percent.
The top rated school in Pennsylvania? Julia R. Masterman Secondary School in Philadelphia, with a score of 98.7, good enough to rank 22nd in the country. The number one school in the nation was Academic Magnet High School in Charleston, N.C., with a perfect score of 100.