By GRAHAM BROOKS / Staff Writer

HELENA–Niche.com conducted a recent ranking for the 2016 best public middle schools in the Birmingham Metro area and Helena Middle School ranked as one of the top 83 schools as well as several other Shelby County Schools, according to the website.

A list of 83 middle schools in the Birmingham area were ranked based on state test scores, student-teacher ratio, student diversity, teacher quality and the overall quality of the school district.

Helena Middle School came in at No. 15 on the list of 83 school and received a grade of an A- for academics, a B+ for district overall experience, a B- for teachers and a B- for student culture and diversity.

Niche.com claims that at the time of calculation, their database contained records for 16,371 public middle schools.

Academic performance carried the highest weight when determining the final ranking, with a weight of 50 percent.

District overall experience and teachers grade carried a weight of 20 percent and student culture and diversity carried a weight of 10 percent.

Other schools within Shelby County that received high marks include Montevallo Middle School at No. 11, Columbiana Middle School at No. 12, Chelsea Middle School at No. 13, Riverchase Middle School at No. 14, Oak Mountain Middle School at No. 16, and Calera Middle School at No. 30.

Helena Middle School is located at 1299 Hillsboro Parkway. The HMS administrative staff includes Principal Scott Knight and assistant principals Jennifer Cofer and Bakari Young.

For more information on the ranking visit K12.niche.com/rankings/public-middle-schools/best-overall/m/birmingham-metro-area/.