Fulton County has the largest number of top-ranked schools in metro Atlanta, followed closely by Cobb County.

That's what Gov. Nathan Deal and his Office of Student Achievement are reporting in their new list of 187 top public schools released Tuesday.

The grading is based on the Georgia Department of Education’s College and Career Ready Performance Index, which is driven by student scores on standardized state tests and other measures, such as parent surveys.

Schools deemed high-performing ranked at or above the 93rd percentile for their "achievement" score, while the greatest gainers ranked that way on their "progress" score, in each case based on an average over three years. School "achievement" scores come from their students' raw scores on the tests, known as the Milestones. Each student's performance over time relative to other students with similar score histories drives a school's "growth" score.

More than 80 of the state's top performers are in core metro Atlanta school districts. See if your school made the list: there were nine in Atlanta, 21 in Cobb (plus two in the city of Marietta), 13 in DeKalb (plus one in the city of Decatur), 23 in Fulton and 13 in Gwinnett (plus two in the city of Buford).

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