Lake City High gets college-readiness bronze from U.S. News & World Report

By: From local reports | SCNow
Published: December 15, 2009

Lake City High School was one of South Carolina’s 19 schools that received bronze medals for their college-readiness scores in U.S. News & World Report magazine.

The 100 high schools with the highest college-readiness scores were ranked and awarded gold medals, and the next 461 top-performing schools earned silvers. Bronze honors went to 1,189 schools.

South Carolina ranked 18th nationally for its number of bronze, silver and gold winners as a percentage of total high schools in the state.

The Charleston County School District’s Academic Magnet High was rated No. 1 for magnet schools nationwide in U.S. News & World Report’s third annual list of America’s Best High Schools.

The new rankings are posted on the magazine’s Web site and will appear in print later this month.

The North Charleston school, ranked 12th among the magazine's overall top 100 “gold” public high schools, was ninth last year. Twenty-one other South Carolina high schools did not make the top 100, but earned a place in the silver or bronze medal categories.

Silver honors went to the Charleston County School of the Arts, also in North Charleston, and to Mayo High School for Math, Science and Technology in Darlington County. Both were silver medalists last year.

The magazine and its partner in the rankings project, School Evaluation Services, examined nearly 22,000 public high schools nationwide. U.S. News & World Report uses a three-step process that analyzes how schools are educating all of their students; minority and disadvantaged students’ achievement; and college-bound students’ scores on state tests, Advanced Placement exams and International Baccalaureate tests.

Seven South Carolina schools have earned repeat bronze honors from the magazine: