These suburban high schools are ranked among best in the country

A number of suburban schools made new lists of the best high schools in the nation. Newsweek on Wednesday released a list of the top 500 in America. The rankings include 30 schools from Illinois - and more than half of them are suburban.

Naperville North High School was the highest local school on the list coming in at No. 58 nationwide. Also in the top 100 were Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire at No. 82 and Naperville Central at No. 95.

Also high on the list were Barrington at No. 161, Lake Zurich at No. 175 and Grayslake Central at No. 262.

Northwest Suburban High School District 214 also had three high schools on the list with John Hersey in Arlington Heights at No. 250, Prospect at No. 346 and Buffalo Grove at No. 442.

Palatine-Schaumburg Township District 211 had two schools on the list with Fremd in Palatine ranked No. 102 and Conant in Hoffman Estates ranked No. 382.

Maine South in Park Ridge was the only Maine Township District 207 school on the list at No. 380.

St. Charles North came in at No. 387 with Wheaton North close behind at No. 388.

Indian Prairie School District 204 also had two schools - Waubonsie Valley and Metea Valley - in the rankings at No. 393 and 497, respectively.

Newsweek also published a list of 500 schools in the country who are "Beating the Odds" - meaning their socioeconomic factors were taken into account for the ranking. The idea behind the list is similar to that in the Daily Herald series "Generations at Risk," which showed the significant relationship between poverty and school achievement.

Elk Grove High School from District 214 made the "Beating the Odds" list at No. 455. Elk Grove has more than 35 percent of its students who are classified as low-income.

Westmont High School joined the list at No. 459, and Lisle High School was No. 478.

Explore the Daily Herald's analysis of school achievement data in the context of income at www.dailyherald.com/lowincome