All Dare High Schools in top 5%

Via the N&O I learned that Newsweek has ranked the top Public High Schools in America
All three Dare County High Schools are on the list. The list includes the top 5% of the high schools in the country. Dare schools fell as follows. (rank - school):

• 1131 First Flight
• 1315 Manteo
• 1320 Cape Hatteras Secondary

If you think I understand how they did it well your wrong. Here is how Newsweek explains it:

Public schools are ranked according to a ratio devised by Jay Mathews: the number of Advanced Placement, Intl. Baccalaureate and/or Cambridge tests taken by all students at a school in 2007 divided by the number of graduating seniors. All of the schools on the list have an index of at least 1.000; they are in the top 5 percent of public schools measured this way.

Of the 53 schools from NC that were on the list CHS was had the lowest score and Manteo was just above them. FFHS scored a few rungs higher. Greensboro (Guilford County), Charlotte-Mecklenburg and Raleigh (Wake County) schools dominated the top of the NC list. Interestingly if you look at the percentage of seniors who actually passed an AP test the local schools move up to the middle of the list (34th and 36th in the state for Manteo and FFHS)
Not sure how valid the measure is but I am sure the the Dare Board of Education will be promoting these numbers. Just remember you read it here first.
Ciao