Eight Cobb high schools on U.S. News’ best of Georgia list

None was within the top 200 nationally
Walton High School, which had the highest graduation rate in Cobb County’s public school system, at 96.1 percent. AJC FILE PHOTO

Walton High School, which had the highest graduation rate in Cobb County’s public school system, at 96.1 percent. AJC FILE PHOTO

More than one in four of metro Atlanta’s best high schools on the U.S. News & World Report’s 2017 list for Georgia are in Cobb County.

The district had eight of the 30 metro area schools listed as tops in the state, starting with Walton High, ranked fifth in Georgia and 204th in the nation. Lassiter, Pope, Harrison, Hillgrove, Wheeler, Kennesaw Mountain and Allatoona high schools also made the list, in that order.

The rankings are based on how student performance on state tests compares to schools with similar proportions of low-income, black and Hispanic students. They also take into account graduation rates and how many students take AP exams and pass at least one.

More than 60 Georgia high schools are ranked among the best in the country under the U.S. News & World Report’s 2017 Best High Schools list.

But no Georgia school was among the top 50 under the U.S. News rankings.

Fourteen Southwest DeKalb High School seniors were surprised with the news that they would receive full-ride scholarships to attend two-year programs at Georgia State University’s Decatur campus.