Ottawa Hills High School is once again ranked among the Top 1 percent of high schools nationally for overall performance. In addition, the building has been named the No. 1 high school in Northwest Ohio and No. 2 in the State of Ohio (out of 683 high schools ranked).
“Our school has proven itself again to be one of the nation’s best. As proud as we all are with this ranking, it is truly just one way we recognize success,” said Superintendent Dr. Adam Fineske. “There are countless others, including those even more important to me such as what happens in our classrooms, in our hallways, and on our playgrounds.”
The rankings were announced today by U.S. News & World Report. The national rankings compared nearly 18,000 high schools and examined six criteria, including graduation rates and AP testing, among students who attended the high school in the 2018-2019 school year.
In addition, Ottawa Hills High School ranked No. 1 in Ohio for STEM. Statewide, the publication compared 707 school districts and 872 high schools; of those schools, 683 Ohio made its rankings. The building has now ranked in the top 5 statewide for three consecutive years.
"This is a tremendous honor and one that many families, students, and teachers share," said Ben McMurray, principal of the Junior/Senior High School. "The rankings reflect a community-wide commitment to our schools and the success of our students."
Here are the six indicators of school quality that U.S. News uses to calculate the rankings:
- College readiness, based on the proportions of 12th graders who took and earned a qualifying score on AP and/or IB exams.
- College curriculum breadth, based on proportions of 12th graders who took and earned a qualifying score on AP and/or IB exams in multiple content areas.
- Math and reading proficiency, based on student performance on state-required tests.
- Math and reading performance, based on whether performance on state assessments exceeded expectations given the school's proportion of underserved students.
- Underserved student performance, based on how Black, Hispanic and low-income students performed on state assessments compared with those who are not underserved in the state.
- Graduation rate, based on the proportion of students who entered ninth grade in 2015-2016 and graduated four years later.
- Awards