For 3rd year in a row, 3 Lexington high schools make top 20 in KY in U.S. News rankings

For at least the third year in a row, U.S. News & World Report ranked three Lexington high schools among the top 20 public high schools in Kentucky in the 2022 Best High School rankings.

Lexington’s Paul Laurence Dunbar High School was ranked No. 11, Lafayette High School was ranked No. 15 and Henry Clay High School was No. 18.

Statewide, Pikeville High School was ranked No. 12. Harlan High School was ranked No. 14. Both are in independent school districts.

DuPont Manual High School in Louisville was listed as No. 1 in the state in the rankings released Tuesday. It was also No. 1 in 2021.

The 2022 rankings included nearly every public high school in the United States. More than 17,800 schools were evaluated at the national, state and local level.

“The Best High Schools rankings take a comprehensive approach to evaluating schools,” Eric Brooks, principal data analyst at U.S. News said in a news release. “Looking at factors like graduation rates and underserved student performance, families can use this information to learn more about their local schools.”

The methodology focuses on six factors: college readiness, reading and math proficiency, reading and math performance, under-served student performance, college curriculum breadth and graduation rates

College readiness specifically measures participation and performance on Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate exams, and under-served student performance focuses on students who are Black, Hispanic, or from low-income households.

For the first time, science proficiency and performance was also incorporated into the methodology for states where science assessment data was available.