2016 Update: These are the top 30 schools in metro Atlanta
2017 update: Here are the best Georgia schools according to US News and World Report
Nearly every core metro Atlanta county has at least one name appear in U.S. News and World Report's most recent rankings of the nation's best public schools.
Indeed, Gwinnett County's Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science and Technology is America's fourth-best high school. (It was named the state's "most challenging" school earlier this year.)
The annual rankings measure schools in four major categories: student-teacher ratio, college readiness, math proficiency and English proficiency.
Here is the best-ranked school in each of the core metro Atlanta counties — Cherokee, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Forsyth, Fulton, Gwinnett and Henry counties.
Clayton and Rockdale counties did not have schools on the list.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has also compiled the 2014 educational data in several important categories for all of these ranked schools, as well as nearly every Georgia public high school, including graduation rates, average SAT scores and more.
That information is included with each.
Cherokee County: Sequoyah High School (No. 34 in the state, No. 1,092 in the country)
- 2014 average SAT scores: 1539
- 2014 graduation rate: 87.3
- Percentage of students in 2013-14 who took an AP class: 20.7
- Percentage of students who qualified for HOPE: 47.84
Cobb County: Walton High School (No. 7 in the state, No. 223 in the country)
- 2014 average SAT scores: 1724
- 2014 graduation rate: 92.7
- Percentage of students in 2013-14 who took an AP class: 49.7
- Percentage of students who qualified for HOPE: 66.57
DeKalb County: DeKalb School of the Arts (No. 4 in the state, No. 108 in the country)
- 2014 average SAT scores: 1645
- 2014 graduation rate: 100
- Percentage of students in 2013-14 who took an AP class: 40.9
- Percentage of students who qualified for HOPE: 92.54
Douglas County: Douglas County High School (No. 58 in the state, No. 2,191 in the country)
- 2014 average SAT scores: 1431
- 2014 graduation rate: 75.1
- Percentage of students in 2013-14 who took an AP class: 8.3
- Percentage of students who qualified for HOPE: 39.79
Fayette County: McIntosh High School (No. 23 in the state, No. 652 in the country)
- 2014 average SAT scores: 1618
- 2014 graduation rate: 93
- Percentage of students in 2013-14 who took an AP class: 26.6
- Percentage of students who qualified for HOPE: 64.81
Forsyth County: South Forysth High School (No. 15 in the state, No. 408 in the country)
- 2014 average SAT scores: 1647
- 2014 graduation rate: 94
- Percentage of students in 2013-14 who took an AP class: 48.9
- Percentage of students who qualified for HOPE: 66.33
Fulton County: Milton High School (No. 6 in the state, No. 187 in the country)
- 2014 average SAT scores: 1654
- 2014 graduation rate: 91.2
- Percentage of students in 2013-14 who took an AP class: 40.3
- Percentage of students who qualified for HOPE: 65.6
Gwinnett County: The Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science and Technology (No. 1 in the state, No. 4 in the country)
- 2014 average SAT scores: 1912
- 2014 graduation rate: 99.4
- Percentage of students in 2013-14 who took an AP class: 60.6
- Percentage of students who qualified for HOPE: 69.05
Henry County: Union Grove High School (No. 37 in the state, No. 1,236 in the country)
- 2014 average SAT scores: 1528
- 2014 graduation rate: 94
- Percentage of students in 2013-14 who took an AP class: 32.8
- Percentage of students who qualified for HOPE: 51.74
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