The Maine School of Science and Mathematics in Aroostook County has been ranked as the second-best high school in the nation.
That’s according to an annual assessment of the nation’s high schools released on Tuesday by U.S. News and World Report. The Limestone magnet school came in second out of 17,245 schools in 50 states and the District of Columbia.
The school came in behind the Academic Magnet School in North Charleston, South Carolina, and ahead of BASIS Scottsdale in Scottsdale, Arizona. It also topped the list for Maine schools included in the magazine’s ranking.
“To wake up to No. 2 in the nation exceeded any and all of our expectations,” Alan Whittemore, dean of enrollment at the Maine School of Science and Mathematics, told the Portland Press Herald on Tuesday evening. “We feel for our faculty, our students, our staff, that it is vindication for all of the hard work that happens as a daily routine up here.”
The U.S. News and World Report revamped its 2019 ranking methodology to expand the number of schools on its list with a focus on college readiness and performance on state exams. Schools were graded on students who took at least one Advanced Placement course, students who passed at least one Advanced Placement course, mathematics proficiency, reading proficiency, and the overall graduation rate.
The Maine School of Science and Mathematics, which opened in 1995, earned near perfect scores in all these areas.
The school offers advanced curriculum in mathematics, science, technology, engineering and the humanities for the motivated and capable student. It has about 145 students, with an 8 to 1 student-teacher ratio, according to U.S. News and World Report.
Maine residents pay no tuition to attend the magnet school, but do pay room and board, which totaled $9,300 for the 2018-2019 school year. For students coming from outside Maine, they paid about $48,600 for tuition, room and board, and a host-family fee for the 2018-2019 school year.
