Report: Most top Kansas high schools are in Johnson County, but the best is in KCK
Correction: Because of a technical issue, a version of this story published on April 21 contained some incorrect rankings for area high schools. This is the correct data:
Eight of the top 10 public high schools in Kansas are in Johnson County, but the No. 1 school in the state is in Kansas City, Kansas, according to an annual report released Tuesday.
For the second consecutive year, Sumner Academy of Arts and Science in the Kansas City Kansas Public School District tops the Kansas rankings, compiled by U.S. News &World Report. The annual Best High Schools places Sumner 50th in the nation, the highest ranking for any public high school in Kansas or Missouri.
Sumner’s rank proves “there is no price tag on education,” said Charles Foust, superintendent of schools in KCK, where a high percentage of students come from low-income families. “Poor does not mean dumb.
“When students have access to high quality teachers who can set boundaries for them and allow them to live up to high expectations, they do rise to that.”
In Missouri, Lincoln College Preparatory Academy, in the Kansas City Public Schools District, ranked No. 4 in the state. Lincoln, often touted by the district as among the most challenging in the Missouri, ranked 294th in the nation. No other high school in the Kansas City area placed in the Missouri top 10.
“They earned this through their incredible focus, resiliency and hard work,” Kansas City Superintendent Mark Bedell said of Lincoln Prep. “Our goal is always to be number one.”
The list ranked approximately 17,790 public high schools out of more than 24,000 reviewed.
The data used to determine how well a school is performing came from state, national and international sources, such as the U.S. Department of Education and the College Board. U.S. News looked at student academic performance — including math and reading scores, the schools’ college-level curriculum, how prepared students are for college and career, and graduation rates.
All the schools included had a 12th-grade enrollment of 15 students or more, “or otherwise had sufficient enrollment in other high school grades during the 2017-2018 school year,” the report said.
Top 10 schools in Kansas
Four of the five high schools in the Blue Valley school district made the Kansas top 10. Two Shawnee Mission schools and one each in the Olathe and DeSoto districts also made the cut.
1. Sumner Academy
2. Shawnee Mission East
3. Blue Valley
4. Blue Valley North
5. Olathe Northwest
6. Blue Valley West
7. Blue Valley Northwest
8. Shawnee Mission South
9. Rock Creek Jr/Sr. High School (in St. George, outside Manhattan)
10. DeSoto
Top schools in Missouri
After Lincoln, the first area school to show up on the list is Park Hill High School, ranking 13th, followed by Staley High School in the North Kansas City school district at 14th. Park Hill South is 19th; University Academy-Upper, a charter school, is 20th, and West Platte High in Weston is 21st.
Most of Missouri’s top 10 are in the St. Louis area:
1. Metro Academic and Classical High School, St. Louis
2. Clayton High
3. Ladue Horton Watkins High
4. Lincoln College Prep
5. Kirkwood Senior High
6. McKinley Classical Leadership Academy, St. Louis
7. Lafayette Senior High, Wildwood
8. Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience, St. Louis
9. Marquette Senior High, Chesterfield
10. Rockwood Summit Senior High, Fenton
Nationally, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia, is ranked the best high school in the country. Schools in North Carolina, Tennessee, Florida, New York, Texas, Arizona, Arkansas and Illinois are also in the top 10.
This story was originally published April 21, 2020 at 12:02 AM.
