Mapped: Iowa's highest-performing high schools

Iowa has among the country's lowest share of best-performing public schools, per U.S. News & World Report's recently released 2024 Best High School rankings .

By the numbers: Just over 2% of public high schools in Iowa are in the top 10% nationally, according to the analysis of 18,000 public high schools.

• Iowa had the eighth-lowest share in the nation, behind all surrounding states except South Dakota where fewer than 2% made the top list.

The fine print: U.S. News and World Report defines " best high schools " as those with students who have "demonstrated outstanding outcomes above expectations in math, reading and science state assessments, earned qualifying scores on an array of college-level exams, and graduated in high proportions."

State of play: The top three in the state are West Senior in Iowa City and Gilbert and Pella high schools.

• Among the top-ranked metro high schools is Ankeny (6th), Adel-De Soto- Minburn (7th) and Valley (11th).

Zoom in: In DSM, Roosevelt ranked 47th and Hoover 108th out of more than 315 in Iowa.