Mount Ayr Community High School is ranked 53rd among 317 high schools in the state of Iowa, according to the 2021 U.S. News and World Report annual ranking of the best high schools in the country.
Schools are ranked on their performance on state-required tests, graduation and how well they prepare students for college. (A complete description of how rankings are determined can be found at usnews.com/education.)
In addition, Mount Ayr ranked 5,994th in the nation among the 17,857 high schools included in the study.
Academically, Mount Ayr ranked fifth in the state and 252nd nationally in math and reading performance despite 44 percent of students being considered economically disadvantaged.
Iowa rankings for other area high schools include:
Bedford 39
Lamoni 51
Mount Ayr 53
Murray 80
Nod. Valley 145
Creston 147
Lenox 161
Clarke 210
Cent. Decatur 217
Corning >218
East Union >218
Orient-Macks >218
I-35 >218
Winterset >218
(Schools ranking lower than 217 are not individually tabulated.
Diagonal High School remained unranked due to too small a sample size for accurate comparisons.)
The top three high schools in Iowa included Decorah, Pleasant Valley, and Iowa City West.
