Bellevue District High Schools Make Newsweek's Top 500 High Schools in America

Bellevue district schools are among the top 500 in the nation, according to Newsweek's new list of America's Best High Schools, released Sunday.

Six Washington public schools made the top 500 ranking, according to the newsmagazine. Bellevue's schools -- International School, Interlake, Newport, Bellevue and Sammamish -- were five of those six in the state.

Click here to read Newsweek's ranking and for a link to its full methodology.

According to Newsweek:

To compile the 2011 list of the top high schools in America, NEWSWEEK reached out to administrators, principals, guidance counselors, and Advanced Placement/International Baccalaureate coordinators at more than 10,000 public high schools across the country. In order to be considered for our list, each school had to complete a survey requesting specific data from the 2009-2010 academic year. In total, more than 1,100 schools were assessed to produce the final list of the top 500 high schools.

Rankings were based on graduation rate, college-bound percentage, college-level tests (AP or IB), average SAT/ACT scores and AP courses offered.

Bellevue's schools often get high scores on national ranking lists that take into account the number of Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate tests taken.

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-- Infobox source, Newsweek.com