U.S. News & World Report last week announced its ranking of the top high schools at the state and national level, with Fountain Hills High School finishing in the top four percent for Arizona and the top eight percent for the country.

Known as the “Best High Schools” rankings, the methodology utilized by U.S. News & World Report relied on four main criteria.

First, it was determined whether a school’s students performed “better than statistically expected” for a given state.

If a school passed the first step, organizers then took a look at whether disadvantaged students within the school outperformed peer groups within the state.

For these first two areas, results on standardized tests were used to serve as a gauge.

The third step for ranking was whether or not students surpassed a benchmark for graduation rates.

Finally, schools were judged on college readiness utilizing test data from advanced placement and international baccalaureate exams.

With all of that data crunched, FHHS came out 19th in the state out of 527 high schools.

At the national level, the Falcons were ranked 1,561 out of more than 21,000 high schools across the country.

Superintendent Dr. Patrick Sweeney presented this information to the Governing Board during the April 27 meeting. He was later asked for comment on the rankings.

“I was happy to see the results,” Sweeney said. “You never know when these things are coming or what they’re going to look like, so we were pleased.”

Sweeney said the staff at the high school’s reaction was less one of surprise and more akin to, “yes, this is what we do here.”

Despite having such a high standing, Sweeney said that, looking at the criteria, he feels FHHS can continue improving in all areas and, hopefully, continue to move up the chart.

“It’s not a secret that we sometimes take a bad rap in the community,” Sweeney said. “To have me running around saying how great of a school we have and to have [Principal] Tom Brennan running around saying it’s a great school is one thing, but to have an outside, statistical, quantitative analysis say you’re one of the top 20 high schools in state of Arizona feels pretty good.”

Sweeney mentioned that the recent ranking doesn’t even take into account additional classes offered, as well as extracurricular activities such as highly performing sports teams, the award-winning band and a flourishing S.T.E.A.M. initiative. The high school’s Key Club, as an example, put in 2,000 hours of community service this school year. There’s also the upcoming Senior Recognition Night, where local students will receive millions of dollars’ worth of scholarships.

“We have a track record of students doing great things here and leaving our high school and going on to be successful in college,” Sweeney continued. “We just need to keep beating that drum to let people know that these great things are going on. We’ve got some spectacular kids doing some spectacular things.”

Sweeney said he credits that to the hard work of his students, as well as the entire staff.

“I appreciate the work the staff and kids have done here,” he added. “We have offerings that are as good as you can get anywhere else. Even in tough economic times, we’ve maintained the courses necessary to be a top-ranked high school.

“And we move down the road, we’ll continue to improve.”