Boston magazine named Weston High School the best public high school in the Greater Boston area in their September 2012 issue, ranking it number 1 out of 50.
In fact, nine out of the top 10 ranked high schools are in the MetroWest area. Runner-up Lexington High, Dover-Sherborn Regional (3), Concord-Carlisle (4), Wellesley (5), Wayland (6), Newton South (7), Acton-Boxborough Regional (9), and Bedford (10) all topped the list.
Newton North, Belmont, Needham, and Brookline high schools made the top 20, and Hopkinton, Holliston, Littleton, Natick, Ashland, Arlington, and Millis appeared on the list as well.
Schools were judged on graduation rates, student-teacher ratios, extracurricular opportunities, and academic performances on the MCAS, SATs, and AP exams, which were considered the most important factors, according to the magazine. The magazine says it put less emphasis on student-teacher ratios and per-pupil spending based on studies that have weakened their reputation as “educational silver bullets.”
The rankings were computed by statistician George Recck, director of the Math Resources Center at Babson College. The “most recent available data on area school districts” was gathered from school officials and websites, as well as the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Only schools serving cities and towns within the Greater Boston I-495 boundary were included.
Weston High has a 95.6-percent graduation rate, and 98 percent of its students go on to college, according to the list. Lexington High, ranked second, has a 95.3-percent graduation rate with 95 percent of its student body going to college. Lexington scored slightly higher than Weston in the MCAS, SATs, and AP categories. In comparison, Dover-Sherborn Regional’s graduation rate is just a tenth-of-a-point behind Lexington, and it’s 99-percent college-bound rating is the list’s highest.
In addition to the top 50 list, Boston magazine created a comprehensive spreadsheet of its collected data on all 230 high schools in the Greater Boston area.
Laura Franzini can be reached at laura.franzini@globe.com.