Edina Boasts Best High School in Minnesota

is once again the best school in Minnesota, ranking 154th in the nation as part of Newsweek's annual Best High Schools list.

Out of the 1,000 schools ranked this year by Newsweek, EHS was one of only two Minnesota schools to break the top 200—Minnetonka finished 190th. A total of 20 Minnesota high schools made the 2012 list, including neighboring districts St. Louis Park Senior (290), Wayzata (355), Eden Prairie (405) and Southwest (448)

Newsweek rated Edina High School a 0.84 on its scale, down slightly from . EHS reported a graduation rate of 98 percent, 0.8 AP or IB tests given per student, 94 percent of graduates accepted to college, an average SAT score of 1887, an average ACT score of 26.2 and an average AP score of 3.6.

In a release, EHS Principal Bruce Locklear said the district is "deeply honored" to be included on the list, considering the myriad data points used to establish the rankings.

"At the end of the day, this recognition reflects the great job our teachers are doing in the classroom to establish rigor, rapport and relationships with our students," Locklear said.

While it maintained its supremacy in terms of Minnesota schools, EHS did take a bit of a dive on the national scale, falling from 76th in 2011 to 154th this year. It was ranked 178th in 2010, 111th in 2009 and 93rd in both 2008 and 2007.

In compiling the 2012 rankings, Newsweek asked principals, superintendents and high school administrators across the U.S. to provide data from the 2010-11 academic year. More than 2,300 schools took part in the survey, from which the top 1,000 institutions were gleaned.

Schools were ranked according to six components: graduation rate, college matriculation rate, AP/IB/AICE tests taken per graduate, average SAT/ACT scores, average AP/IB/AICE scores and number of AP/IB/AICE courses offered. This was the second year Newsweek utilized the new methodology to determine its rankings.

See the full list of the best high school's in the U.S. here.

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