Cullman High School has been named one of the 20 best high schools in Alabama in U.S. News & World Report’s annual rankings.

CHS ranked 19th out of 376 public high schools across the state based on six indicators that U.S. News uses to grade each state’s schools. Those indicators include:

College readiness (30% of the ranking): The percentage of 12th graders from the class of 2017-2018 who took at least one AP or IB exam during high school and the percentage of 12th graders who passed at least one AP or IB exam in high school.

College curriculum breadth (10%): The percentage of 12th graders from the class of 2017-2018 who took a wide variety of AP and IB courses across the multiple disciplines and the percentage of 12th graders who passed them.

Reading and math proficiency (20%): Measures how well students scored on state assessments that measure proficiency in reading and mathematics.

Reading and math performance (20%): The difference between how students performed on state assessments and what U.S. News predicted based on a school’s student body.

Underserved student performance (10%): How well the student population receiving subsidized school lunch, and black and Hispanic populations perform on state assessments relative to statewide performance among students not in those subgroups.

Graduation rate (10%): For the 2020 rankings, the graduation rate corresponds to the 2018 graduation cohort who would have entered ninth grade in the 2014-15 school year.

Those six indicators are then used to create a score from 0-100, and Cullman High School’s score of 90.51 was good for 19th in the state. 

“Cullman High School continues to do an excellent job and that is certainly possible by the foundation all of our schools provide in preparing our students. I am very proud to see CHS recognized in the Top 3% of all high schools in Alabama,” Cullman City Schools Superintendent Susan Patterson said in an email. “We have been fortunate over the last couple of years to expand our learning opportunities for students while maintaining the high academic standards that are expected in Cullman City. The work our teachers and administrators due is tremendous and even more so during this difficult time we have all been facing.”

Cullman County had one high school in the top 50, with Fairview High School placing 48th in the state with a score of 77.39.

Here is are the U.S. News & World Report’s top 10 high schools in Alabama:

1. Loveless Academic Magnet Program (Montgomery County)

2. New Century Technology High School (Huntsville City)

3. Mountain Brook High School (Mountain Brook City)

4. Homewood High School (Homewood City)

5. Booker T. Washington Magnet High School (Montgomery County)

6. Vestavia Hills High School (Vestavia Hills City)

7. James Clemens High School (Madison City)

8. Bob Jones High School (Madison City)

9. Oak Mountain High School (Shelby County)

10. Brewbaker Technology Magnet High School (Montgomery County)