Latest list says Butler's best in CMS

According to the new U.S. News & World Report ranking of best high schools,  Butler High is the best in Charlotte-Mecklenburg and third in North Carolina.

The online rankings look at whether schools performed better than average on state exams, for all students and for black, Hispanic and low-income students.  Schools that passed that cut were rated on a college readiness index,  based on participation and performance on Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate exams. (Read details of the rating process here.)  The magazine writes that ratings are  "based on the key principles that a great high school must serve all of its students well,  not just those who are college-bound,  and that it must be able to produce measurable academic outcomes to show the school is successfully educating its student body across a range of performance indicators."

It's a more complex calculation than the recent list by Washington Post education columnist Jay Mathews, which ranked Northwest School of the Arts as the CMS school with the highest participation in AP and IB classes.  Northwest didn't earn a ranking in the U.S. News list.  Butler was No. 1188 in the nation and sixth in CMS on Mathews'  list.

Number-crunching never tells all there is to know about a school, but lists are hard to resist.  U.S. News collected data on 21,000 public high schools,  including charters and magnets.  Forty-nine N.C. schools earned gold or silver medals,  with Durham School of the Arts topping the state's list.  Here are schools in the Charlotte area that garnered silver medals  (there were no golds), with their  ranking in North Carolina and nationally (check the list here).  Schools are in CMS unless otherwise noted:

Butler: 3 / 642.
North Meck: 8 / 1005.
Salisbury High (Rowan-Salisbury): 10 / 1097.
East Meck: 13 / 1259.
Newton-Conover High (Newton-Conover): 14 / 1282.
St. Stephens High (Catawba County):  25 / 1669.  
Olympic Biotech:  30 / 1841.
West Lincoln High  (Lincoln County):  34 / 1966.
Kings Mountain High  (Cleveland County):  37 / 2028.
Lincolnton High (Lincoln County):  39 / 2068.
East Rowan High (Rowan-Salisbury):  44 / 2178.
Foard High (Catawba County):  47 / 2209. 

In South Carolina,  Fort Mill's Nation Ford High was 10th in the state and No. 1188 in the nation,  with Fort Mill High at 14 / 1623.