Aurora High School in Portage County ranked No. 11 and Hudson High School in Summit came in at No. 13 in the 2020 News & World Report rankings for best high school in Ohio.

Last year, Aurora came in at No. 9 and Hudson ranked 11th.

This year, Ottawa Hills High School, west of Toledo, is ranked No. 1 in the state and No. 92 in the nation according to the online magazine.

Aurora is the highest-ranking high school in the Akron-Canton five-county area — Portage, Summit, Medina, Stark and Wayne — on the list.

Nationwide, 18,000 schools were ranked on six factors, including college readiness, based on the proportion of students who took and passed AP (Advanced Placement) or IB (International Baccalaureate) exams and underserved student performance, based on how black, Hispanic and low-income students performed on state assessments compared with those who are not underserved in the state.

Ohio K-12 schools are closed for the remainder of the school year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine initially ordered schools closed effective March 17. Classrooms will remain closed to nearly 1.7 million Ohio schoolchildren until at least next school year. DeWine said at his weekly coronavirus news briefing earlier this week that no decision has yet been made concerning opening classrooms this fall.

The top Northeast Ohio school on the Ohio list is Solon High School, ranking fourth after Bexley, outside Columbus (3); Walnut Hills High School in Cincinnati (2) and Ottawa Hills High School, in the top spot.

Ottawa moved up to the top spot in the Ohio list this year from fifth place last year.

Walnut Hills High School in Cincinnati was ranked second, after holding the No. 1 spot last year.

In the Akron-Canton area, after Hudson at 13th place, Highland High School in Granger is ranked at No. 36.

Revere High School in Bath Township, came in at No. 39. Jackson High School in Stark County ranked at No. 43.

Twinsburg High School ranked No. 44 and Chippewa High School came in 61st.

Hoover High School in North Canton is 65th; Nordonia High School is 76th; Lake High School in Hartville is 80th; Mogadore High School is 82nd; Wooster High School is 83rd; Copley High School is 84th; Louisville High School is 89th; Green High School is 90th; Wadsworth High School is 101st.

In the Akron district, Akron Early College comes in at No. 1 (it is No. 132 in the Ohio rankings) and Firestone High School claims the No. 2 spot (it is No. 187th in the Ohio rankings.)

Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Virginia claimed the top spot in this year’s Best High Schools national rankings.

Last year's No. 1, Academic Magnet High School in South Carolina, slipped to No. 2.

Rounding out the rest of the top 10 of the national rankings in order, are: Merrol Hyde Magnet School in Tennessee; School for Advanced Studies in Miami; Townsend Harris High School in New York; The School for the Talented and Gifted in Dallas; BASIS Chandler in Arizona; Haas Hall Academy Bentonville in Arkansas; Payton College Preparatory High School in Chicago; and Irma Lerma Rangel Young Women's Leadership School in Dallas.

The other factors used to rank the high schools include math and reading proficiency, based on students performance on state-required tests; math and reading performance, based on whether performance on state assessments exceeded expectations given the school's proportion of underserved students.

Graduation rates are another factor. The rates are based on the proportion of students who entered ninth grade in 2013-2014 and graduated four years later.

To see the complete state and national rankings, go to www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/rankings-overview.

Contact Katie Byard at kbyard@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3781.