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player ready...Neuqua Valley High School again ranked highest in the state among the five Naperville-area public schools in the U.S. News & World Report’s 2022 Best High Schools rankings.
The Naperville school also was one of a dozen Illinois schools to earn a spot on the magazine’s top 250 high schools for science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
The annual tabulation evaluates more than 17,800 schools at the national, state and local level, including the two high schools in Naperville District 203 and three in Indian Prairie District 204.
In the overall rankings, Neuqua Valley High School came in 17th in the state (417 in the nation), rising three spots from 20th in the state last year (421 nationally).
The District 204 school also continues to move up on the list of the top 250 high schools in the country for STEM, going from 162 in 2020 to 147 in 2021 and to 101 in 2022.
Among the 12 Illinois high schools on the top 250 list, Neuqua ranks fifth behind Payton College Prep in Chicago, New Trier Township High School in Winnetka, Adlai Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire and Lake Forest High School.
No other Naperville area school made the 2022 STEM, though Naperville Central High School ranked No. 205 last year.
District 203’s Naperville Central also rose five spots from last year to 24th in the state and overtook District 204’s Metea Valley High School in Aurora, which remained ranked at 26th for the second year in a row.
Naperville Central also moved up from 616 in the nation last year to 609 in 2022 while Metea Valley fell to 627 nationally from 566 in 2021.
Naperville North, also in District 203, this year rose four spots to 35th in the state and was up 30 spots to 732 in the nation.
District 204’s Waubonsie Valley High School in Aurora ranked 49th in the state in 2021 (1,146 in the nation), but fell in 2022 to 53rd in the state (1,212 nationally).
The top five highest ranked high schools in Illinois, according to U.S. News, are in the Chicago Public Schools system: Payton College Prep, Northside College Prep, Jones College Prep, Young Magnet High School and Lane Tech.
Rounding out the top 10 are Proviso Math and Science Academy in Forest Park, Stevenson High School, Vernon Hills High School, Hinsdale Central High School and New Trier Township High School.
“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 rankings focus on six factors: college readiness, reading and math proficiency, reading and math performance, underserved student performance, college curriculum breadth and graduation rates.
For the first time, science proficiency and performance was also incorporated into the methodology for states where science assessment data was available.
In addition to rankings, the Best High Schools report includes information on enrollment, student diversity, participation in free and reduced-price lunch programs, graduation rates and the results of state assessments.