America's Best High Schools recognizes three categories of distinction: gold, silver, and bronze. Analysis is based on:

• Standardized test performance
• Proficiency rates of all students, including the least advantage
• Challenging college-ready curriculum

The bronze medal recognizes high schools that met the first two criteria of the America's Best High Schools methodology. These schools have demonstrated commendable performance on state tests, but did not perform well enough on the college readiness index to merit identification as a top-performing high school.

This national award is based on the principles that a great high school must serve all its students well, not just those who are bound for college and it must be able to produce measurable academic outcomes to show that the school is successfully educating its student body across a wide range of performance indicators.

U.S.News and World Report analyzed over 21,069 public high schools using data from the 2006-2007 school year. The top 100 schools received gold medals, the next 504 top-performing schools received silver, and the next 1,321 schools were awarded bronze medals.

A complete list of America's Best High Schools, as well as details about the analysis and the methodology used in the ranking, is available at www.usnews.com/highschools or www.schoolmatters.com.