U.S. News Ranks ‘Best High Schools’, How central MN Fared

UNDATED -- U.S. News is out with their annual "Best High Schools" list. In the state of Minnesota, they rank the Math and Science Academy in Woodbury as the best high school, followed by Nova Classical Academy Upper School in St. Paul at #2, and Eastview Senior High in Apple Valley at #3.

Sartell is the highest ranked high school in central Minnesota with a #20 ranking.

Central Minnesota high school rankings:
#20 - Sartell
#57 - Sauk Rapids-Rice
#132 - St. Cloud Technical
#174 - Becker
#179 - Kimball
#181 - Apollo
#197 - ROCORI
#207 - Melrose
#210 - Royalton
#227 - Holdingford
#278 - Foley
#283 - Albany

U.S. News ranked the schools based on six categories, including College Readiness, Graduation Rates, Math and Reading Proficiency, Math and Ready Performance, Underserved Student Performance, and College Curriculum Breadth.

Holdingford Superintendent Chris Swenson says he wasn't thrilled with where they were ranked.

I did some looking into the ranking and found it is heavily skewed towards schools that have AP programs. Other schools such as ours who have gone more the route of "college in the schools" as an opportunity for our students to receive college credit are handicapped by the ranking system.

Swenson says he doesn't want to take away from what some schools are doing with their AP programs but felt it was a bit of an unfair look at the other schools.