The 2018 rankings methodology reincorporated IB data, which were not available last year. And for the second year, U.S. News used tiebreakers to determine numerical ranks for schools that performed equally in the final step.
U.S. News used a four-step methodology to evaluate high schools and create the rankings, with the help of North Carolina-based research firm RTI International.
The first step focused on student performance on state-mandated math and reading tests during 2015-2016. Schools had to perform better than statistically expected on these tests in their state, given their student poverty levels, to make it to the next step.
The third step took into account a high school's graduation rate. A school needed to boast a rounded graduation rate of at least 80 percent, which is higher than the threshold used for last year's rankings – 75 percent.
The final step determined if a school's national ranking was a gold, silver or bronze medal. In this fourth step, U.S. News looked at how well the remaining schools prepared students for college based on student participation in and performance on AP and IB exams.
Without successfully meeting Steps 1-3 as described above, schools were not eligible for the national competition for a gold, silver or bronze medal and don't appear in the rankings.
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