Last year, I posted that U.S. News & World Report’s best public high school rankings gave Algonquin Regional a big boost — from #30 in the state to #14. This year, it dropped back down, to even lower than the 2024 & 2023 rankings.
The school is now listed as #34 for the state.
I always warn to take these rankings with more than a grain of salt. Ranking methodologies are confusing, vary greatly by organization, and can change year-to-year. And the data used generally means a lag between schools’ performance and rankings. This year’s rankings are mainly based on information from the 2023-2024 school year.
I can’t find any clear reason for this year’s shift. (It doesn’t appear the magazine’s methodology changed this year. And since the magazine replaced last year’s rankings with this year’s I can’t compare details on specific underlying scores.)
The school scored a decent 96.5 on the “scorecard”. But that’s a significant downgrade from the 98.1 last year. The change resulted in not only a tumble in state rankings, but national rankings. ARHS went from #341 in the nation to #629.
Some other schools in directly neighboring towns have also seen rankings that jumped around for better or worse over the past couple of years. In contrast, Hopkinton High stayed steady at #8 for Massachusetts.
AMSA (Advanced Math and Science Academy), which was historically ranked most years as a #2-4 school dropped last year to #15. This year, it dropped again, but by only one rank from #15 to #16.
Last year, ARHS outranked Westborough, which was #19. Westborough dropped significantly this year, but outranked ARHS again as #32.
You can see how we compare with neighboring districts over the past nine years in my chart below (click to enlarge):1
It’s worth noting that the magazines’ (and most rankings’) methodologies are clearly geared for determining which schools are best for students to get into a selective college. That means vocational schools (which US News doesn’t give a special category for) rank poorly in comparison. (Yes, many students go on to college from a vocational school. But a higher percent of students that aren’t interested in academics and don’t take AP tests and will naturally attend a school that helps them directly prepare for the workforce.)
You can read about US News’ methodology here. And you can see Algonquin’s details (and links to other rankings) here.
- When I couldn’t find data, I inserted “?”. The dashes for ARHS and AVRTHS in 2018 reflect that the magazine chose not to rank those schools that year.
