Sarasota County Schools has announced that Pine View School has once again been ranked as the No. 1 high school in the state of Florida, based on U.S. News and World Report’s 2019 "Best High Schools" rankings. Pine View School was also ranked No. 15 in National Rankings, No. 8 in Magnet High Schools and No. 23 in STEM High Schools.

“Pine View School is an undeniable asset to our school district,” notes Todd Bowden, superintendent of Sarasota County Schools. “There is no other environment quite like it for academically gifted students, and we are proud that their hard work is being recognized on this scale.”

In coordination with RTI International, U.S. News & World Report ranked 17,245 public high schools out of more than 23,000 reviewed. The 2019 edition is six to seven times larger than the more than 2,700 ranked schools in the 2018 edition.

The rankings are based on college readiness, based on the proportions of 12th-grade students who took and passed Advanced Placement and/or International Baccalaureate exams; college curriculum breadth, based on proportions of 12th-grade students who took and passed 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; and graduation rates, based on the proportion of students who entered ninth grade in 2012-2013 and graduated four years later.

The highest-ranked schools are those whose students excelled on state tests and performed beyond expectations; participated in and passed a variety of college-level exams; and graduated in high proportions. U.S. News assigned numerical ranks to schools performing in the top 75 percent. Schools performing below the 25th percentile are listed alphabetically with a ranking range.

Two other Sarasota County schools, Riverview High School and Suncoast Polytechnical High School, were also featured in the top 100 of the 2019 Best High Schools Rankings for the state, receiving spots 52 and 58, respectively. Neighboring Manatee County schools first appeared at No. 114 with Lakewood Ranch High School, and Charlotte County Public Schools appeared at No. 180 with Lemon Bay High School.