Newsweek Ranks Maine South No. 10 In Illinois, 167 In U.S.

Newsweek Magazine has come out with its 2011 annual list of best high schools in the country, and Maine South High School, which educates students from Niles and Park Ridge, landed near the top of the list.

Maine South, in Maine Township High School District 207,  ranked 10th in the state and 167th in the nation.

Newsweek changed its formula this year. High schools across the nation are dealing with financial cutbacks, No Child Left Behind rules and student stress, the magazine said, and so the magazine consulted experts and employed a new methodology in hopes of highlighting solutions.

The methodology included considering graduation rate, the percentage of students that go on to college, number of Advanced Placement courses offered and Advanced Placement tests taken per graduate,  average SAT scores and other factors.

In the 2010 results last year, Maine East placed 30th in Illinois, and 1,129th out of the 1,600 high schools Newsweek identified as the best in the country, which it said was about 6 percent of the total. Maine South did not place.

According to the magazine's ranking, Illinois' top 10 high schools for 2011 included, in order:

1) Northside Preparatory High School, Chicago

2) Illinois Math and Science Academy, Aurora

3) Hinsdale Central High School, Hinsdale 

4) Stevenson High School, Lincolnshire

5) Glenbrook North High School, Northbrook

6) Prospect High School, Mount Prospect

7) University Laboratory, Urbana

8) New Trier Township, Winnetka

9) Riverside-Brookfield, Riverside

10) Maine Township South, Park Ridge