Some charter schools in Utah County are out-scoring their regular public school counterparts, according to utahschools.org.

Utah County Academy of Sciences, a charter school in Orem, is in the No. 1 slot for high schools in academics, while the Walden School of Liberal Arts in Provo is ranked third.

Utahschools.org is sponsored by the Sutherland Institute, a conservative, nonprofit, public policy research organization in Utah. The Web site ranks regular public and charter schools across Utah in academics, environment and college preparedness. Private schools are also ranked, but in a different category.

"Since the voucher bill passed, we decided it would be a good time to give utahschools.org a facelift," said Katie Christensen, the Web site's spokeswoman. "We hope it will help parents choose the education that best fits their child."

The Web site ranks schools' academics based on the Iowa test. The standardized test is given to all public school students in the 4th, 8th and 11th grades. It also looks at college preparedness and the environment, based on several factors, which include student-to-teacher ratio, extra-curricular activities and tutoring services.

Carl Nelson, Utah County Academy of Sciences assistant principal, said the school is a success because it receives college-ready students beginning as sophomores from Utah County school districts. Charter schools are public schools.

"Much of the success we have, we owe to our feeder districts," he said.

By the time the students are seniors, most are full-time students at Utah Valley State College.

Lone Peak and Timpview high schools are tied for 10th on the list of 144 high schools.

Private schools are listed in their own category on the Web site because they often do not make their students take the Iowa standardized test.

"Since we can't do academic rankings for private schools, it's hard to actually compare private and public schools side by side," Christensen said.

All of the information on the Web site came directly from the Utah State Office of Education's site.

"We just enter all of the information we can find, put it into a formula, and it comes out with the rankings," Christensen said.

By this time next year, Lisa Montgomery, the Web site's administrator, said the group would like to have a place for teachers, parents and principals to add comments on the school. It would also like to offer a side-by-side comparison of up to three schools.

Brooke Barker can be reached at 344-2559 or bbarker@heraldextra.com.

Name/District/Type/Rank-

Top Five Utah County High Schools -

Utah County Academy of Sciences/Alpine/Charter/1

Walden School of Liberal Arts/Provo/Charter/3

Lone Peak/Alpine/Regular Public/10

Timpview/Provo/Regular Public/10

Springville/Nebo/Regular Public/15

Top Five Utah County Middle Schools -

John Hancock/Alpine/Charter/2

Walden School of Liberal Arts/Provo/Charter/4

Timberline Middle School/Alpine/Regular Public/8

Mountain Ridge Junior High/Alpine/Regular Public/14

Oak Canyon Junior High/Alpine/Regular Public/20

Top Five Utah County Elementary Schools -

John Hancock/Alpine/Charter/6

Wasatch/Provo/Regular Public/17

Foothill/Provo/Regular Public/22

Hobble Creek/Nebo/Regular Public/22

Highland/Alpine/Regular Public/27

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page D1.