Eupora High School has been named one of the “Best High Schools” by U.S. News & World Report for the seventh consecutive year.
In the 2018 U.S. News Best High Schools rankings released May 9 during Teacher Appreciation Week, EHS was among 54 Mississippi schools earning bronze badges, making the cut of the 30 percent of schools nationwide that scored high enough to earn a Gold, Silver or Bronze Best High Schools recognition.
There are three levels of medal award winners. In total, U.S. News nationally ranked the 5,948 highest-scoring schools as gold, silver or bronze in the 2018 rankings. The highest-performing high schools in Mississippi that earned the Silver badge, in rank order, were Ocean Springs, Lewisburg (DeSoto County) and Petal.
U.S. News routinely identifies the country’s top-performing public high schools. The goal is to provide a clear, unbiased picture of how well public schools serve all of their students — from the highest to lowest achieving — in preparing them to demonstrate proficiency in basic skills as well as readiness for college-level work.
U.S. News started out reviewing 28,813 public high schools in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. That number was reduced to 20,548 schools that were eligible to be ranked.
What does U.S. News look for when rating schools? It checks to see if students exceeded expectations in their states, if underserved students performed better than the state average, if student graduation rates met a threshold and if students were prepared for college-level coursework, as indicated by participation in and passage of AP and International Baccalaureate.
U.S. News worked with global research firm RTI International on a methodology that stressed schools “must serve all students” and yield measurable outcomes tied to that.
The top 500 high schools earned the Gold designation, about 2 percent, for highest college readiness. Silver designation is awarded to high-performing schools, about 11 percent, based on lower college readiness, and Bronze designation is based on state exam performance, about 16 percent of high schools.
“Top-ranked schools succeed in three main areas: exceeding expectations on state proficiency tests, offering challenging coursework and graduating their students,” Anita Narayan, managing editor of Education at U.S. News, said in a statement.
Arizona charter school BASIS Scottsdale took the No. 1 spot in the nation. Massachusetts topped the overall state rankings, with 25.7 percent of its public high schools receiving gold and silver medals from U.S. News.
Webster County School District Data
(Based on the 2015-16 school year)
Eupora High School
Graduation rate: 86 percent
College readiness: N/A
Medal awarded: Bronze
Grades served: 6-12
Total enrollment: 451
Student-Teacher ratio: 15:1
Total minority enrollment: 34 percent
Mathematics proficiency: 56 percent
Reading proficiency: 47 percent
East Webster High School (a 2015 Bronze Medal School)
Graduation rate: 82 percent
College readiness: N/A
Medal awarded: N/A
Grades served: 6-12
Total enrollment: 483
Student-Teacher ratio: 17:1
Total minority enrollment: 13 percent
Mathematics proficiency: 20 percent
Reading proficiency: 40 percent
