LHS Lands on U.S. News & World Report's 'Best High Schools' List

It’s not news that Lexington’s is a highly regarded public school district.

So it’s no surprise that the Lexington High was listed among the U.S. News & World Report’s “Best High Schools” list, released on Tuesday, May 8.

Lexington landed in 14th place in the state and 280th nationally, according to the always controversial calculations. 

Other area schools to rank highly include Belmont (4th in the state), Weston (5th), Wellesley (12th), Acton-Boxborough (15th), Needham (17th) and Wayland (24th). Arlington, Winchester and Concord-Carlisle landed just outside of Massachusetts’ Top 25.

The U.S. News & World Report rankings were released the same day Superintendent of Schools Paul Ash announced publicly that Lexington High School students won the National Science Bowl Competition, took third in the International Robotics Competition and two students won an Emmy Award.

Those achievements—plus stellar SAT scores, outstanding arts programs and a burgeoning Best Buddies program—are some of the reasons Ash believes the U.S. News & World Report ranking sells LHS short.

“We’re the best in the state,” Ash said proudly on Wednesday afternoon. “The formula they use is suspect. … It’s a good way to sell magazines.”

To compile the list, U.S. News & World Report partnered with the American Institutes for Research, a Washington D.C.–based social science research group to rank 22,000 public high schools. State rankings are based on the school's nationwide rankings, which are based on data from the 2009 to 2010 school year, according to the magazine's website.

At the start of the current school year, a year after it listed LHS as the third-best high school in Massachusetts.

BoMag's formula for determining district rankings includes test scores from students in 135 districts, per pupil spending, student-teacher ratio, number of AP classes, graduation rate, percentage of students who continue to college, as well as the amount of sports teams and clubs.

"Of course there are many indicators for excellence and Lexington does well by many of them," Mary Ann Stewart, chairwoman of the School Committee, wrote in an email to Patch at the time. "This ranking marks the fifth year in a row that LHS has had the highest SAT scores. One amazing statistic that struck me is that LHS has so many after-school offerings -- that contributes mightily to a student's sense of identity apart from achievement."