A new performance ranking of more than 17,000 U.S. high schools finds that 31 percent of Oregon high schools perform in the bottom quarter nationally.

The rankings, by U.S. News and World Report, are based heavily on how many students take and pass Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate exams and how well students do on state-required math and reading tests. The news outlet’s ranking methodology was updated this year to include more schools. Its ratings give extra weight to how well schools serve low-income and minority students. Graduation rates count for 10 percent.

Only one Oregon school, Beaverton’s School of Science & Technology, cracked the top 100, coming in at No. 78. Nine Oregon schools placed in the top 1,000. Three are magnet schools – Beaverton’s International School and its Sci & Tech high and Woodburn’s Academy of Art, Science and Technology.

The six highly ranked neighborhood high schools are all in well-off communities: Lakeridge (No. 260) and Lake Oswego (No. 896) high schools in Lake Oswego, West Linn High (No. 390), South Eugene High (No. 537), Wilsonville High (No. 353) and Portland’s Lincoln High (which just squeaked into the top 1,000 at No. 996). Of those, Wilsonville is the most economically diverse, with low-income students making up 28 percent of its class of 2018.

The rankings reward schools for having a high proportion of their students take AP or IB exams and, more so, for having a high proportion earn passing scores on those exams. Among Oregon schools that ranked in the national top 1,000, the International School of Beaverton and Lincoln both offer the International Baccalaureate program; the rest offer Advanced Placement courses.

U.S. News ranked all 12,934 schools whose performance put them in the top 75 percent of schools nationally. Those in the bottom quarter were not given individual rankings but simply listed as being in that bottom quartile.

In Oregon, 80 schools including Bend, Gladstone, Hillsboro and Ontario high schools and Portland’s Jefferson High ranked that low. Bottom-tier schools accounted for 31 percent of all Oregon schools ranked. In Washington, 81 high schools ranked that low. But because Washington has so many more high schools, that meant that only 22 percent of its high schools ranked in the bottom quartile.

Here are the Oregon schools that ranked among the best 20 percent of high schools nationally, along with their national rank:

School of Science & Technology, Beaverton: 78

International School of Beaverton: 170

Lakeridge High, Lake Oswego: 260

Wilsonville High: 353

West Linn High: 390

South Eugene High: 537

Woodburn Academy of Art, Science & Technology: 617

Lake Oswego High: 896

Lincoln High, Portland: 996

Arts & Communications Magnet Academy, Beaverton: 1,178

Wellness, Business & Sports School, Woodburn: 1,258

Crescent Valley High, Corvallis: 1,273

Corbett School: 1,482

Riverdale High: 1,483

Ashland High: 1,675

Cleveland High, Portland: 1,858

Corvallis High: 2,124

Southridge High: 2,132

Sherwood High: 2,232

Elmira High: 2,281

Grant High, Portland: 2,502

Sprague High, Salem: 2,530

West Salem High: 2,772

Oregon City High: 2,811

St. Paul High: 2,946

Cottage Grove High: 2,994

Clackamas High: 3,195

West Albany High: 3,283

Franklin High, Portland: 3,285

Philomath High: 3,358

Churchill High, Eugene: 3,433

-- Betsy Hammond

betsyhammond@oregonian.com