When it comes to helping shape your child's future, selecting a high school is tantamount only to choosing a reproductive mate, but don't let the pressure get to you.
Newsweek and The Daily Beast have done the hard work for parents across the nation, looking at public school graduation and college acceptance rates, plus participation in Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate programs, to determine America's Best High Schools.
Carnegie Vanguard High School in Houston was counted among those that best prepare students for college, ranking near the top for the third consecutive year. The school took No. 28 in this year's rankings, compared to No. 13 in 2012 and No. 11 in 2011.
A selective magnet school that draws gifted and talented students from different cultural and socio-economic backgrounds from across the Houston Independent School District, Carnegie Vanguard boasts a 100 percent graduation rate (with 93 percent of those students college-bound) and an average SAT score of 1883.
Houston's Michael E. DeBakey High School for Health Professions, the first of its kind in the nation, took No. 85 on the list, also citing a 100 percent rate of graduation and a 93 percent rate of college attendance, with an average SAT score of 1844.
Other Houston schools ranking among the top 1,000 included
- Clear Horizons Early College High School at No. 201
- Memorial High School, No. 254
- YES Prep Public Schools — North Central, No. 370
- Clear Lake High School, No. 392
- Harmony Science Academy, No. 414
- Energized for STEM Academy, No. 434
- the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, No. 597
- KIPP Houston High School, No. 601
- Stratford High School, No. 774
- YES Prep — Southeast, No. 849
- Westchester Academy for International Studies, No. 924.
Dallas had two schools in the Top 10: The School of Science Engineering (No. 4) and The School for the Talented and Gifted (No 5.)
In Austin, the highest ranked public school is the Liberal Arts and Science Academy High School, which came in at No. 33.
DeBakey High School
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