St. Louis’ Metro Academic and Classical High School is again among the nation’s 500 best in making its students ready for college.
U.S. News and World Report issued its annual rankings Tuesday, looking at more than 22,000 public high schools in the country, based on math and reading test scores, graduation rates and college preparedness.
Metro, a magnet school, was ranked 139th, a jump from last year’s 220th spot. Principal Wilfred Moore gives a lot of the credit to parents.
"If the parents are interested in their child’s education and the teachers know the parents are interested in their child’s education, and there’s a good communication between the two, they can get their students to try a little harder and value their education," he said.
Another area school, Ladue Horton Watkins High School in Ladue, remained in the top 500 as well at No. 369. That’s a slight drop from 345 last year. Both it and Metro earned “gold” rankings, U.S. News’ way of indicating the highest level of college readiness.
Metro and Watkins were first and second-best in Missouri. Clayton High School ranked third in the state.
No high school in Illinois' Metro East was in the top 500, though several in the Chicago area were.
The rankings are based on factors including attendance, graduation rate and scores on college-readiness exams.