U.S.News & World Report, the nation's leading source of news analysis and service journalism, today released its first-ever list of America's Best High Schools, available at www.usnews.com/highschools and on newsstands as of December 3 (magazine issue date December 10, 2007). Based on an in-depth methodology, which factors in test scores as well as other data, this list is the most comprehensive of its kind. The nearly 1,600 high schools that met key criteria fall into three categories of distinction: gold, silver, and bronze, with Thomas Jefferson High School in Alexandria, VA, topping the list.


"To ensure that U.S. News truly captures and recognizes the nation's best high schools, we teamed with analysts from School Evaluation Services to develop an innovative methodology that allowed us to analyze how well high schools serve all students, not just those that perform at the top of their class," said Brian Kelly, editor, U.S.News & World Report. "For the list to be meaningful, it was critically important for the methodology to factor in poverty and economic status, including disadvantaged students, average students, and college-bound students to measure how well the school served their specific body of students."


The America's Best High Schools list provides an opportunity to celebrate and recognize high schools that are serving all students well," said William Cox, executive managing director, Standard & Poor's. School Evaluation Services is a K-12 education data research and analysis business developed by Standard & Poor's in 2001. "There are more than 500 gold and silver schools on the list that were able to exceed expectations across all student groups. It is our hope that other high schools will be able to learn from and emulate their successes."


The 100 top-performing high schools were given a distinction of "gold" and are listed numerically. The remaining 405 schools meeting all three criteria have been designated "silver" high schools.


Additionally, 1,086 high schools were identified that merit honorable mention for their performance on state tests. These bronze high schools met the first two criteria of this methodology, but did not meet the college- readiness criteria based on AP tests. While AP is by far the most widely used college-level program in the country, there are schools that focus on providing students with access to alternative college-level programs.


For a complete list of America's Best High Schools, visit www.usnews.com/highschools. To learn more about a specific school or to compare schools side-by-side, visit www.schoolmatters.com.