Palatine's High Schools Ranked Among Best in State

Both of Palatine's high schools were ranked among the top schools in Illinois, according to the U.S. News & World Report’s Best High Schools Rankings.

was ranked 40 and was ranked 50 among 672 Illinois schools.

The 2012 rankings were released online May 8. Both schools were two of 51 silver medal schools in Illinois.

The top ranked school in the state is Northside College Preparatory High School in Chicago. Numerous Lake County high schools were ranked high on the list including Stevenson High School, #5; Deerfield High School, #7; and Highland Park High School, #12.

Barrington High School was ranked #26 and Lake Zurich High School was #39.

To produce the 2012 U.S.News & World Report Best High Schools rankings, U.S. News teamed up with the Washington, D.C.-based American Institutes for Research (AIR), one of the largest behavioral and social science research organizations in the world. 

AIR implemented U.S. News's comprehensive rankings methodology, which is based on the key principles that a great high school must serve all of its students well, not just those who are college-bound, and that it must be able to produce measurable academic outcomes to show the school is successfully educating its student body across a range of performance indicators, according to an explanation of the methodology used in U.S. News to determine the best high school rankings.

LZHS was awarded a silver medal because it met criteria for top-level ranking. Gold and silver medals went to schools which have performance levels that exceed statistical expectations; proficiency rates on state tests for disadvantaged students; and prepare students for college.