Wauwatosa East, West Make Newsweek's Top High Schools List

Wauwatosa East and West have ranked in Newsweek's list of America's Best High Schools. 

In the national ranking of 2,000 high schools, Wauwatosa East ranked 1065 and Wauwatosa West ranked 1220. 

All the data analyzed was self-reported by each school for the 2011–12 school year. Over 5,000 high schools were invited to participate in the survey this year, and nearly 2,500 responded. 

Newsweek and The Daily Beast have compiled this list for the past two years and each year the methodlogy is tweaked. 

This year the methodology weighed the percentages of four-year, on-time graduation rate (25 percent); 2011 graduates who were accepted to college (25 percent); AP/IB/AICE tests per student (25 percent); average SAT and/or ACT score (10 percent); average AP/IB/AICE exam score (10 percent); and students enrolled in at least one AP/IB/AICE course (5 percent).

According to the list:

• Wauwatosa East had a four-year graduation rate of 91 percent, 91 percent of students were college-bound, the average ACT score was 24 and the average AP score was 3.2. 

• Wauwatosa West had a four-year graduation rate of 89 percent, 90 percent of students were college-bound, the average ACT score was 22.9 and the average AP score was 3.2. 

The state Department of Public Instruction has different graduation rates from the report put together by Newsweek and The Daily Beast. According to the DPI, Wauwatosa West had a graduation rate of 96 percent and Wauwatosa East had a rate of 93 percent.

Out of 55 Wisconsin schools on the list, Wauwatosa East ranked 21st and West ranked 25th.