In the May 8, 2006 issue of Newsweek magazine which listed the top high schools in the country, there is only one Massachusetts school that reached the top 100. That was the exclusive Boston Latin school, which placed 81st on the list.
      It is the oldest public school in the country, only accepts about 20% of applicants for admission. One of the main aims of the school is to have their students take and pass the AP exams, so it is no surprise that they were on the list.

      The bigger surprise is that there are so many standard public schools across the country that don’t have a stringent admission policy that scored ahead of Boston Latin.
      The Massachusetts schools that ranked in the top 500 were Manchester-Essex Regional, Dover-Sherborn, and Duxbury High school, which ranked 154, 156 and 178th respectively. Belmont (215), Weston (237), Wellesley (338), Norwell (374), Lexington (424) and University Park Campus (499) all showed in the top 500. The next highest according to Newsweek are Brookline (726), Andover (807), Wayland (828) and Holliston (928).
      Some educators are trying to downplay the ranking assigned by Newsweek. John McCarthy, principal at Duxbury High, is one of those. The criteria that was used to gauge each school was based on how many students took the Advanced Placement exams versus the number of graduating seniors.
      He said that some states like Florida emphasize AP tests more than others. Others cite the emphasis on the state’s MCAS exam as contributory towards the lower number of AP exams. Passing the MCAS exam is mandatory to graduating in Massachusetts. Many educators have focused on getting the largest ratio of students passing the MCAS exam, since public funding for a school may rest on those results, rather than helping students prepare for AP exams.