How does your student’s high school measure up to others in Florida — and the rest of the country?
A new report from U.S. News and World Report ranked the top high schools nationwide and within Florida. Five Brevard high schools made the top 110 in the state — West Shore Jr./Sr. High, Edgewood Jr./Sr. High, Satellite High, Cocoa Beach Jr./Sr. High and Viera High. West Shore Jr./Sr. High and Edgewood Jr./Sr. High made the top 100 in the country.
Brevard Public Schools Superintendent Mark Rendell commended the performance around the district in a statement sent to media outlets Aug. 21.
“It is great to see the hard work of our students and staff recognized with these rankings,” he said. “Our entire community should be very proud. Student access to advanced coursework is critical to their success in the future, and these schools are meeting this need at a high level.”
Rendell added that the rankings “underscore Brevard Public Schools’ mission to serve every student with excellence as the standard” and that the district will continue to expand access to “rigorous academic programs and fostering environments where students are empowered to succeed.”
Every year, U.S. News and World Report ranks higher education institutions, a practice they began in 1983. They also compare elementary, middle and high schools to see how these schools perform locally, within their given state and nationally.
To determine the ranking, U.S. News and World Report worked with RTI International, a global nonprofit social science research firm. They summed schools’ weighted scores across six indicators of school quality — college readiness, college curriculum breadth, state assessment proficiency, state assessment performance, underserved student performance and graduation rate — and computed a single 0-100 overall score to indicate each school’s performance across these metrics.
That’s the method they used to rank the schools nationally and within their states as well. This year, they ranked more than 24,000 public high schools around the nation, with 654 of those being in Florida.
Here’s how Brevard ranked.
West Shore Jr./Sr. High in Melbourne was ranked at No. 5 among Florida high schools and 57th in national rankings.
Edgewood Jr./Sr. High in Merritt Island ranked at No. 9 among Florida schools, while ranking at No. 89 nationally.
Satellite High in Satellite Beach ranked at No. 69 among Florida high schools and No. 1,114 nationally.
Cocoa Beach Jr./Sr. High in Cocoa Beach ranked at No. 85 among Florida high schools and No. 1,280 nationally.
Viera High in Viera ranked at No. 101 among Florida high schools and No. 1,492 nationally.
Finch Walker is the education reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Walker at fwalker@floridatoday.com. X: @_finchwalker. Instagram: @finchwalker_.