Two Palm Beach County schools squeaked into Top 100 in national rankings. See the full list
Two Palm Beach County high schools are once again among the top 100 public high schools in the nation, according to the annual rankings released Tuesday by U.S. News & World Report.
Alexander W. Dreyfoos Jr. School of the Arts was ranked 91st and Suncoast High School squeaked into the top 100 at 98th place — both coveted spots in the top 17,000 high schools across the country.
But both schools' rankings fell from last year, when Suncoast came in at 70th place and Dreyfoos ranked 90th.
Both schools routinely landed near the top of U.S. News’ list before the magazine changed its system in 2019, adding more schools to the review and more considerations to the ranking process.
In 2022, neither school cracked the top 100 list. Dreyfoos was ranked 111th and Suncoast came in at 119th.
U.S. News & World Report came up with its rankings by analyzing six weighted categories: college readiness (30%), state assessment proficiency (20%), state assessment performance (20%), college curriculum breadth (10%), underserved student performance (10%) and graduation rate (10%). This is the same formula used to calculate the rankings in 2023.
The magazine worked with North Carolina-based RTI International, a nonprofit social science research firm, and ranked more than 17,600 public high schools out of about 25,000 reviewed. To qualify for ranking, the public high schools had to have a senior class of at least 15 students.
For more on how schools were ranked, see the U.S. News & World Report website.
Suncoast is a magnet school that pulls students from all over Palm Beach County and requires an application to attend. Dreyfoos also pulls students from the whole county, requires an application and an audition for its arts programs.
Best Palm Beach County high schools in 2024
Palm Beach County was once again well-represented in the top 100 schools in the U.S. and heavily present further down the list.
Nine local schools ranked in the top 2,000 schools nationwide, and another 10 were listed in the top 5,000 schools.
Here are the high schools that made the top 5,000 spots:
91st place: Alexander W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts
98th place: Suncoast High School
635th place: Spanish River High
930th place: West Boca Raton High
1,305th place: Jupiter High
1,356th place: Boca Raton High
1,740th place: Park Vista High
1,818th place: Wellington High
1,831st place: Olympic Heights High
2,477th place: Inlet Grove High
2,644th place: Somerset Academy Canyons High
2,983rd place: Palm Beach Virtual
3,049th place: SLAM! Boca High School
3,165th place: Atlantic High
3,177th place: William T. Dwyer High
3,260th place: G-Star School of the Arts
3,499th place: Palm Beach Central High
3,584th place: Pahokee Middle-Senior High School
4,096th place: South Tech Academy
See the full list of national rankings and an explanation of the methodology on the U.S. News & World Report website.
Best high schools in Florida 2024
South Florida once again dominated the magazine's statewide rankings of best high schools this year — 13 of the top 20 schools are in Palm Beach, Broward or Miami-Dade counties.
Here are the top 20 high schools in Florida:
Pine View School, Osprey
Millennium 6-12 Collegiate Academy, Tamarac
Westshore Junior/Senior High School, Melbourne
Archimedean Upper Conservatory Charter School, Miami
Stanton College Preparatory School, Jacksonville
Edgewood Jr/Sr High School, Merritt Island
Marine Academy of Science and Technology (MAST@FIU), North Miami
Jose Marti Mast 6-12 Academy, Hialeah
Design and Architecture Senior High School, Miami
Alexander W. Dreyfoos Junior School of the Arts, West Palm Beach
Neocity Academy, Kissimmee
Suncoast High School, Riviera Beach
Young Women's Preparatory Academy, Miami
Terra Environmental Research Institute, Miami
International Studies Charter High School, Miami
Doral Performing Arts and Entertainment Academy, Doral
MAST Academy, Key Biscayne
iPrep Academy, Miami
Paxon School/Advanced Studies, Jacksonville
Darnell Cookman Middle/High School, Jacksonville
Katherine Kokal is a journalist covering education at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at kkokal@pbpost.com. Help support our work, subscribe today!
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Best Palm Beach County high schools rankings in US News & World Report