Bay, Westlake earn silver medals in high school ranking

Bay and Westlake high schools have been designated Silver Medal Schools in U.S. News & World Report's 2016 ranking of America's Best High Schools. Bay High ranked No. 24 in Ohio (out of 890 high schools), and No. 583 nationally (out of 19,908 public high schools). Westlake High ranked No. 41 in the state, No. 968 in the country. Bay narrowly missed the Gold Medal designation, which is awarded to the nation's top 500 rated schools.

U.S. News and World Report considers a number of factors in its ranking. First, they determined whether each school's students were performing much better than statistically expected for the average student in the state, factoring in the percentage of the school's economically disadvantaged students, on math and reading proficiency tests.

In the second step, it was determined whether the school's least-advantaged students – black, Hispanic and low-income – were performing better than average for similar students in the state. Third, graduation rates were considered.

Then, in a final-step calculation, an AP "college readiness" index was computed based on the weighted average of the AP participation rate (12th-grade students taking at least one AP test before or during their senior year divided by number of 12th-graders) along with how many of those students passed at a score of 3 or higher (the score which many colleges accept for course credit). The quality score (passing rate) was weighted at 75 percent, while the participation rate was weighted at 25 percent for the college readiness index.