Loch Raven Ranked Among Nation's Best Schools

is considered one of the best public high schools in Baltimore County, according to a recent appraisal by Newsweek magazine that named the 500 "Best American High Schools."

Loch Raven ranked 433rd on the list and was one of seven Baltimore County public high schools to be recognized. Other schools on the list included:

• Eastern Technical High School in Essex (ranked 131)
• Hereford High School in Hereford (ranked 219)
• in Towson (ranked 232)
• in Pikesville (ranked 388)
• in Towson (ranked 413)
• in Timonium (ranked 446)

According to a news release, the schools were among 10,000 public high schools across the nation the magazine contacted for the analysis.

School administrators self-reported on a variety of data requested for the list, including graduation rates, graduates enrolling in college, average SAT scores, the per-student number of Advanced Placement (AP) tests taken, average AP scores and other weighted data.

Including the seven BCPS schools, 18 Maryland schools qualified for the nation’s best list, which was published on Sunday and jointly sponsored by Newsweek and its corporate partner, the Daily Beast website.

“We already know that Baltimore County’s high schools are among the best in the nation based on a variety of factors,” said Baltimore County Public Schools Superintendent Joe A. Hairston in a statement. “This study, as others have shown this year, validates the work that is going on every day in all of our schools to prepare young people for a challenging but promising future.”

Since 1988, Newsweek and The Washington Post had joined forces to research and publish a list examining the nation’s top high schools, mostly based on a formula that compared the number of AP exams to graduating seniors.

Following the magazine’s sale last year, however, the original survey became the property of the Post, which released its newly renamed “” list in May.

That project, which culled 1,900 high schools from among 27,000 high schools across the nation, identified 13 Baltimore County high schools as being among the top 7 percent of high schools in the nation.

“Rather than focus, as in the past, on one metric (AP tests taken per graduate), we consulted a group of experts ... to develop a yardstick that fully reflects a school’s success turning out college-ready (and life-ready) students,” wrote the Newsweek study’s authors, Clark Merrefield, Lauren Streib and Ian Yarett.

The new “Best American High Schools” project may be found by clicking here.