Minnetonka High School Ranked 7th Best in State

received gold medal honors and the rank of seventh best high school in the state by U.S. News & World Report.

The 2012 rankings, which were released Tuesday, named Southwest High School in Minneapolis as the state’s top school, ranking 163rd nationally. The rankings placed Minnetonka as No. 499 in the nation.

Neighboring schools that did well include Edina at No. 2, , and – receiving silver medal honors.

U.S. News compiled the rankings—in partnership with Washington, DC-based American Institutes for Research—using a three-part process to evaluate nearly 22,000 public high schools across the country. Minnesota had 145 schools make the rankings.

Tell us in comments, why did Edina and St. Louis Park beat Minnetonka in the rankings?

The first step determined whether students were performing better than expected for the average student in the state. The second step determined whether the school's least-advantaged students (black, Hispanic and low-income) were performing better than average for similar students in the state. 

If a school made it through rounds one and two, they were judged on college-readiness performance, using Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate test data.

Most of the data comes from the 2009-10 school year.

View Minnetonka High School's full U.S. News profile here.