College Readiness (30%)

The College Readiness Index, or CRI, is measured by the proportion of a school's 12th graders who took and earned a qualifying score on Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) exams.

College Curriculum Breadth (10%)

The College Curriculum Breadth Index, or CCBI, is calculated among a school's 2021-2022 12th graders from the percentage who took, and the percentage who earned qualifying scores on, multiple AP or IB exams. Students who took exams and earned qualifying scores in four AP or IB content areas earned full credit. Those who earned qualifying scores in two or three AP or IB content areas were given partial credit of 50% and 75%, respectively.

State Assessment Proficiency (20%)

Each state issues standardized tests measuring student proficiency in subjects related to mathematics, reading and science. States often look closely at student performance on these tests to determine whether learning in core subjects is achieved and to review how well schools are educating students. At least passing some of these assessments may be a requirement for students to graduate.

State Assessment Performance (20%)

This ranking indicator also is derived from math, reading and science state assessments. But in this case, the total assessment scores are compared with what U.S. News predicted for a school with its demographic characteristics in its state.

Underserved Student Performance (10%)

This is a measure assessing learning outcomes only among Black, Hispanic and low-income students. This evaluates how well this underserved subgroup scored on state assessments compared with the average for nonunderserved students among schools in the same state. Schools performing above the 50th percentile nationally in this comparison received the highest score, while other schools’ scores decreased the greater the distance between their underserved students and their state’s median for nonunderserved students.

Graduation Rate (10%)

Among students who entered ninth grade in the 2018-2019 academic year, this measure is the proportion who graduated four years later, by 2022. Graduation rates are an important indicator of how well a school is serving its students.