Awards & Recognition

US News & World Report Best High Schools

AHS's US News & World Report Ranking & Profile

Ashland High School is proud to be recognized by US News & World Report! AHS has been awarded the "Best High School National Rankings" award.

In the past, AHS has earned silver medal status in 2007, 2009, and 2012-2018. Starting 2019, US News & World Report changed their recognition philosophy to better represent schools using RTI as a basis. Schools are awarded a "Best High Schools" recognition based on a number of criteria including the following:

  • College readiness (30% of the ranking): The percentage of 12th graders from the class who took at least one AP or IB exam during high school and the percentage of 12th graders who passed at least one AP or IB exam in high school. Passing is weighted three times more than taking.

  • College curriculum breadth (10%): The percentage of 12th graders from the class who took a wide variety of AP and IB courses across the multiple disciplines and the percentage of 12th graders who passed them. Passing is weighted three times more than taking.

  • Reading and math proficiency (20%): Measures how well students scored on state assessments that measure proficiency in reading and mathematics. Passing these assessments can be required for graduation. Examples of assessments include Smarter Balanced in California and STAAR in Texas.

  • Reading and math performance (20%): The difference between how students performed on state assessments and what U.S. News predicted based on a school's student body. U.S. News' modeling across all 50 states and the District of Columbia indicates that the proportions of students who receive subsidized school lunch, are black and are Hispanic are highly predictive of a school's reading and math scores.

  • Underserved student performance (10%): How well the student population receiving subsidized school lunch, and black and Hispanic populations perform on state assessments relative to statewide performance among students not in those subgroups.

  • Graduation rate (10%): For the 2019 rankings, the graduation rate corresponds to the 2017 graduation cohort who would have entered ninth grade in the 2013-14 school year. The high school graduation rates were collected directly from each state along with the math and reading assessment data.

This honor is shared by all staff, K-12, and is a testimony to the hard work of our students, teachers, staff, administrators, families and community! The ranking system recognizes schools that "serve all of its students well, not just those who are college-bound. Award winning schools must be able to produce measurable academic outcomes to show the school is successfully educating its student body across a range of performance indicators."