Olympus High School fell from 10th to 20th in Utah in the new U.S. News & World Report Best High Schools rankings released Tuesday, Aug. 18, while Granite District neighbor Skyline High climbed one spot to No. 2 statewide.

The 10-place drop is the largest among schools previously in Utah's top 10. For Holladay families whose students started the school year just six days earlier on Aug. 12, the decline lands in a year when the ranking methodology leans heavily on AP and IB exam performance, state test scores and outcomes for low-income and minority students.

U.S. News ranks nearly 18,000 public high schools nationally using six weighted factors. College readiness carries the heaviest weight at 30%, measured by the share of seniors who scored a 3 or higher on an AP exam or 4 or higher on an IB exam. State assessment proficiency and state assessment performance together account for 40%, drawn from 2023-24 math, reading and science results. Underserved student performance, which compares outcomes among Black, Hispanic and low-income students against non-underserved peers statewide, counts for 10%. Graduation rate and college curriculum breadth each add another 10%.

The specific sub-scores that drove Olympus's decline are not publicly available. The U.S. News school profile page for Olympus returned an error as of Tuesday.

Skyline, located in Millcreek but part of the same Granite School District, moved up from No. 3 last year. Corner Canyon High School in Draper, part of the Canyons School District serving Cottonwood Heights, rose two spots to No. 5. Brighton High School, which serves most Cottonwood Heights students, did not appear in the state's top 20.

The Salt Lake Tribune reported that the statewide top spot went to Karl G. Maeser Preparatory Academy, a charter school in Lindon. Five of the top 10 are charter schools. Beehive Science and Technology Academy in Sandy, which held No. 1 for five consecutive years, fell to 11th.

The district has not responded.

Superintendent Ben Horsley and board member Julie Jackson, whose Precinct 1 includes both Olympus and Skyline, had not issued public statements as of Tuesday, Aug. 18. Board member Clarke Nelson, who also represents Holladay, was similarly silent. Jackson's address is listed in Holladay at 5224 S. Cottonwood Lane.

The district's next public board meeting is Tuesday, Sept. 1, at the Granite Education Center, 2500 S. State Street. An earlier public session on Tuesday, Aug. 25, beginning at 4 p.m. at the same location, is scheduled for board vacancy interviews but is open to the public. Families seeking answers about the rankings can attend either meeting during public comment periods.