Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette Houghton High School band members rehearse for teacher Kelly Fontaine. Houghton ranks as one of the top 25 schools in Michigan and one of the 900 schools in the country, according to U.S. News & World Report.

HOUGHTON — Houghton High School was named as one of the 25 best high schools in Michigan in a recent ranking put out by U.S. News & World Report.

The school placed 24th in the state and 890th in the country in the magazine’s latest ranking of high schools, which included around 18,000 schools nationwide. The rankings were determined in collaboration with North Carolina-based RTI International, a global nonprofit social science research firm.

Statewide, Houghton ranked 28th in college readiness (tied for 1,458th nationally), 44th in college curriculum breadth (tied for 1,761st), 41st in math and reading proficiency (1,124th), 49th in math and reading performance (1,345) and tied for 179th in graduation rate (tied for 5,572nd).

“We’re very pleased at that ranking,” said High School Principal Cole Klein. “Our students and teachers are doing a tremendous job here. We’re always striving to have top academics here, and that reporting really shows what our students are capable of and the quality of education that Houghton High School and the Houghton school district have to offer.”

Some students coming to the district have mentioned Houghton’s reputation for high academic standards as a reason, Klein said.

“The word is out there that we have quality education,” he said.

Klein thanked students, parents and teachers for the hard work and support that led to the ranking.

Two criteria used information provided by College Board and International Baccalaureate on their respective college-prep programs, Advanced Placement and IB. College readiness, which made up 30% of the weighted score, was determined by the percentage of students who received a qualifying score. College curriculum breadth (10%) measured the proportion of students that passed the tests in multiple areas.

State education data were used for the other four. Math and reading proficiency (20%) was based on student performance on state-required tests; math and reading performance (20%) measured how the state did compared to expectations given the school’s proportion of underserved students.

Underserved student performance (10%) made up its own category, looking at how Black, Hispanic and low-income students performed on state assessments compared with those who are not underserved in the state.

The final criteria was graduation rate (10%), based on what proportion of the 2015-16 ninth-grade class graduated four years later.

U.S. News then ranked those schools which fell within the top 75%.

State education data came from the 2018-19 school year. State assessment tests were given greater weight overall because the data were used for all schools, and states generally place more value on them than graduation rates in assessing schools, according to a U.S. News explanation of its methodology.