U.S. News & World Report last month ranked five urban schools in districts represented by the Council of the Great City Schools in the top 10 of “Best High Schools” in the nation for 2022.

High schools in Charleston, S.C., Miami, Chicago, Dallas and Philadelphia ranked among the 10 “best” nationally in the newsmagazine’s annual rankings of more than 24,000 public high schools in 50 states and the District of Columbia that were evaluated.

The schools were ranked on six indicators of school quality, including college readiness based on the proportions of 12th graders who took and passed Advanced Placement and/or International Baccalaureate exams; college curriculum breadth; math and reading proficiency based on state tests; and four-year graduation rates.

U.S. News ranked the Academic Magnet High School in Charleston No. 2, School for Advanced Studies in Miami No. 4, Payton College Preparatory School in Chicago No. 5, The School for the Talented and Gifted in Dallas No. 8, and Julia R. Masterman Secondary School in Philadelphia No. 10.

This was the third year in a row the Academic Magnet High School in Charleston was ranked the nation’s second-best high school. 

“I am honored to accept this recognition on behalf of our whole school community,” said AMHS Principal Jacob Perlmutter (and alumni of the school). “A lot of people - students, faculty, staff, and parents - worked hard for this. They did the heavy lifting to contribute to Academic Magnet’s long-standing tradition as one of the top schools in our nation.”

Three more urban high schools in Council districts rounded out the top 20 nationally. The California Academy of Math and Science in California’s Long Beach Unified School District  ranked No. 15, Townsend Harris High School in New York City ranked No. 19, and the Irma Lerma Rangel Young Women’s Leadership School in Dallas ranked No. 20.

Jay Matthews Challenge Index

The Jay Matthews Challenge Index also released in April its top 300 schools for 2022 and several big-city schools made the list.

The Challenge Index is the oldest high school ranking system in the country, beginning in 1998 in both Newsweek and The Washington Post. The index ranks private and public schools on the number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate or Cambridge tests given at a school each year and divided by the number of graduating seniors.

Big-city schools that made the top 10 on the list were Carnegie Vanguard in Houston at No. 3, Young Women’s Preparatory Academy in Miami at No. 4, and Stanton College Prep in Florida’s Duval County Public Schools at No. 10.