Comparing Florida High School Rankings

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U.S.News & World Report rankings have a lot of overlap with the Florida Department of Education rankings.

U.S.News & World Report just released its most recent list of high school rankings.

Seven Florida high school’s ranked among the nation’s top 50.

But we thought it might be interesting to see how U.S. News’ ranking compared to the rankings the Florida Department of Education released last year.

A handful of schools showed a difference in the two rankings, but for the most part the rankings aligned. Florida’s top-ranked high school, Collegiate High School at Northwest Florida State College, does not show up in the U.S. News rankings at all.

Florida also separates schools that combine middle and high school programs, while U.S. News does not.

The two rankings have some overlapping methodology: Both rely on Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test scores and on the number of students taking and passing Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and other accelerated coursework designed to prep students for college.

U.S. News adds a three-step process that looks at test scores, scores among minority and low-income students and finally what percentage of students took accelerated courses and how well they did in those classes.

U.S. News’ model puts more emphasis on performance in accelerated courses than Florida’s rankings.

Here’s the top 20 Florida schools in U.S. News’ rankings, and how they finished in the Florida Department of Education rankings.

A note: The Florida DoE rankings are for high schools only. Schools listed as “NR” were included ranked in the Florida DoE’s combination middle/high school list or another list.

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