Gold Stars

Newsweek Magazine has ranked the Jefferson County International Baccalaureate School in Irondale, Alabama #1 among U.S. public high schools.

Other Alabama high schools making the list were the Alabama School of Fine Arts in Birmingham (#61), Auburn(#211), Mountain Brook (#248), the Loveless Academic Magnet Program in Montgomery (#434), and Grissom in Huntsville (#631).

Schools were ranked based on the number of students taking Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate tests, divided by the number of graduating seniors. Private schools and public schools with strict academic admission standards were excluded from the rankings.

Sounds like a hokey way of judging academic excellence to me, but hey...it's Newsweek...what do you expect? (Newsweek has provided a FAQ about the rankings here.)