Park City High School named #9 in Utah by U.S. News and World Report

The Park City School District building on Kearns Blvd. Photo: TownLift // Bailey Edelstein

PARK CITY, Utah. — In a report released today, Park City High School squeaked into Utah’s Top 10 high schools.

Coming in at #9, PCHS was in third place among public schools on the list. First, second and third place in U.S. News and World Report’s annual rankings were charter schools.

Skyline High, a Millcreek school in the Granite School District, was ranked #4, the top public high school in the state. Davis High, a Kaysville school in the Davis School District, placed sixth.

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Charter schools have increasingly dominated the list since the magazine updated its ranking methodology. According to a Salt Lake Tribune article, 2018-2019 data was used in determining the rankings , so any COVID impacts are not represented.

Park City High School serves grades 10-12 and has an enrollment of roughly 1,200 students. PCHS Principal Roger Arbabi is not permitted by his employer to talk publicly about his school, and referred a request for comment to the school district office.

“Our schools have committed and dedicated educators who work to know the students by strength, talented students who aspire to change the world in the most positive ways with numerous accolades to commend the Class of 2021, and the support of a caring community…those seem to be the important areas of focus during this busy year,” said Superintendent Jill Gildea.

Utah ranks last in the country in state spending on education per pupil; the Park City Education Foundation works to make up for that by adding about $1 million annually to the school district’s programs.

The six indicators of school quality U.S. News used to calculate the rankings:

College readiness, based on the proportions of 12th grade students who took and earned a qualifying score on AP and/or IB exams.
College curriculum breadth, based on proportions of 12th grade students who took and earned a qualifying score on AP and/or IB exams in multiple content areas.
Math and reading proficiency, based on student 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.
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.
Graduation rate, based on the proportion of students who entered ninth grade in 2015-2016 and graduated four years later.

View the magazine’s national results here.