SLPS School Is a State Leader in National Rankings

St. Louis—Metro High School has earned a place in U.S. News and World Report’s “America’s Best High Schools 2008.” In its new rankings, the magazine gives the St. Louis Public School District’s magnet school a silver medal for academic quality. Metro is the only school in the St. Louis region and only one of two schools in the state to receive the distinction.

Unlike the well-known Newsweek high school rankings, which are based solely on the percentage of students taking advanced-placement or international baccalaureate exams, the U.S. News’ list seeks to measure how well schools educate all of their students. To make the cut, schools have to provide a good education across their entire student body, not just for some students. Also, they must be preparing students for postsecondary opportunities.
Nearly 1,600 high schools, out of 18,500 analyzed in forty states, met U.S. News' criteria for great high schools, based on 2005-06 test data. The one hundred schools that did the best in this analysis earned gold medals. The next 405 schools were awarded silver medals, and an additional 1,086 schools earned bronze.

U.S. News & World Report has ranked colleges, graduate schools and other programs for years, but this is the magazine's first ranking of high schools. The results are available at www.usnews.com/highschools.