U.S. News and World Report high school rankings are out

If you believe the U.S. News and World Report rankings, no Maryland high school is good enough to be in the top 50 in the nation. The first 25 high schools are those where 100 percent of students take Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate classes and 100 pass the exams. The news magazine also ranks Maryland high schools and the top seven schools are in Montgomery County. Severna Park is the top high school in the Baltimore region and comes in 211 in the nation, followed by Eastern Tech, a magnet high school in Baltimore County, and River Hill in Howard. The next three high schools in the area are the Carver Center for the Arts at 11, Dulaney High at 13 and Towson High at 14.

Western High School in Baltimore City is the top ranked school in the city and the 31st best in Maryland. Baltimore Polytechnic Institute is 44, Baltimore School for the Arts is 45 and City College is 52 in the state and 1,846 in the nation.

A high school's ranking is based on data from the 2009-2010 school year and heavily weighted to give schools credit for how to oard a how well prepared students are to take AP and IB tests. Schools that decided just plain rigorous classes would be at the bottom of the list.