SKOKIE, IL — Niles North High School ranked as the 74th best public high school in the state, while Niles West High School ranked No. 80 in the latest “Best High Schools” analysis from U.S. News and World Report.
The news outlet compiled data on 673 schools in Illinois and 17,655 schools nationally, ranking them on their students’ performance on state-mandated standardized tests, their graduation rates and college readiness levels.
According to the 2024 rankings, Niles North is the 1,851th best public high school in the United States, while Niles West is ranked 2,120th.
In Illinois, broken down by individual ranking factors, Niles North was ranked 83rd in college readiness, 89th for the breadth of its college curriculum, 104th for proficiency on state assessments 117th for performance on state assessments and 271st for its graduation rate.
Meanwhile, Niles West was ranked 97th in the state on the college curriculum breadth index, 101st in proficiency on state assessments, 151st on performance on state assessments and 187th for its graduation rate.
The top five public high schools in the state are all selective-enrollment Chicago Public Schools. In the suburbs, the five top-ranked schools are Adlai Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Vernon Hills High School, New Trier Township High School, Hinsdale Central High School and Libertyville High School.
University High School in Normal, the University of Illinois lab school, was the only high school outside of the Chicago area to crack the top 20 in the state.
If Chicago Public Schools are excluded from the rankings, Niles North improves to No. 57 in Illinois, and Niles West moves up to No. 63.
U.S. News provided more detail in a scorecard used to the 2024 rankings for both District 219 high schools.
- 67 percent of NNHS students are proficient in science
- 38 percent are proficient in math
- 37 percent are proficient in reading
- 35 percent passed at least one Advanced Placement exam
- 91 percent of students in the class of 2022 graduated on time
- 61 percent of NWHS students are proficient in science
- 41 percent are proficient in math
- 39 percent are proficient in reading
- 33 percent passed at least one AP exam
- 93 percent of students in the class of 2022 graduated on time
In the list, Illinois ranks 24th among U.S. states and the District of Columbia.
Among the 673 of ranked schools, 37 are in the top 5 percent nationally, 159 were in the top 25 percent. State-by-state performance is based solely on which states have the largest proportion of schools in the top 25 percent.
U.S. News chooses not to display the rankings for lower-performing schools in the bottom 25 percent of its rankings. Instead it displays them all as No. 13,242-17,655.