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SALT LAKE CITY -- Utah High Schools are ranked in football and basketball, but parents have no comparable way to view schools' performance in academics until now. KSL has launched a research project called KSL Schools that shows how schools stand up against each other.
To rank overall high schools, our analyst equally weighted proficiency, how schools prepare students to meet basic state requirements, advanced placement (considered college prep) and progress scores. The state says progress helps equalize the playing field by judging students at a school against their own progress rather than comparing them to students from different socio-economic categories.
Utah's Top 10 high schools are:
- Park City High School
- Davis High School
- Skyline High School
- Viewmont High School
- Lone Peak High School
- Timpview High School
- Alta High School
- Woods Cross High School
- Timpanogos High School
- Mountain View High School
Those at the top come from a variety of districts. "What it says is that every school district is probably doing good job with some schools. And I think each one of them has some premiere schools," said Steve Harrison, and independent analyst with Bach Harrison.
We also ranked small high schools -- under 200 students -- using the same criteria.
Utah's Top 5 small high schools
- Panguitch High School
- Valley High School
- Morgan High School
- North Summit High School
- Wayne High School
The rankings begged several questions. Sunday night we revealed our research identified small schools like Altamont High School and Piute High School at the top of the list for preparing all students to meet state requirements. So why didn't they make our Top Schools list?
These small school schools don't or can't offer Advanced Placement classes. So, for many students, there is a clear advantage to attending a big high school. "I think there is if you are college-bound, it certainly is; because they're able to then offer more of those advanced placement classes," Harrison said.
We recognize not all success stories revolve around test scores or rankings, so we've asked every principal to send us their school stories.
We'll show more success stories Tuesday night on KSL 5 News at 10.
E-mail: dwimmer@ksl.com
