Four MPS schools named among nation's best - WSFA.com: News Weather and Sports for Montgomery, AL.

U.S. News & World Report has named four Montgomery Public Schools among the nation's best.

Loveless Academic Magnet Program, Brewbaker Technology Magnet High, Booker T. Washington Magnet High and Carver High School all made the publication's 2012 Best High Schools list, which includes data on nearly 22,000 public high schools from 49 states and the District of Columbia.  

"Nothing pleases me more than to have four schools receive national recognition for their hard work and dedication to students," said Superintendent Barbara Thompson.  

"Student achievement is our top priority. As a district we have increased our Advanced Placement offerings, and put programs and tools in place that help students achieve. This recognition shows that our students can successfully compete against anyone in the country," she said. 

 Loveless ranked number one in the state, 32 on the list of the nation's top 500 high schools, and eighth best magnet school in the nation.  For the past several years, the school has consistently achieved Gold Medal status. 

"It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to accomplish what LAMP has achieved over the years," said Loveless Principal Sylvia Goshton. "The culture of LAMP is to push students to think a little deeper, express your thoughts and ideas, and continue to learn more.  Preparing students for the next phase of their lives is truly important to us." 

Brewbaker Technology and Booker T. Washington were named silver medalists„Ÿ an upgrade from the previous year's Bronze Medal status. 

"Increasing rigor, communicating our expectations, building community support and engaging parents have been key components of our success academically," said Brew Tech Principal Sophia Johnson. "Going from Bronze to Silver status tells me we are doing the right things in our program and we will continue to put programs in place that make our students competitive". 

BTW Principal Quesha Starks said school culture is also important. Her school motto "Excellence in All Things" isn't a platitude that hangs in the school; it's something she, her faculty, students, parents and FAME Board of community stakeholders believe.

"Arts education is a powerful force in promoting academic excellence. When we support the arts and technology integration in schools and encourage students to pursue challenging coursework, we promote excellence and support learning at higher levels," Starks said.  

Carver High School was among 2,860 schools to be named a Bronze Medal school, which is classified as a high-performing school based on state assessments and other factors. Carver received the same distinction in 2009.  

"When I came to Carver in 2006, my teachers and I  said we would restore the pride in our school through student achievement, innovative programs, activities, community support and increased parental involvement," said Hall. "All those things working together have gotten us to this point. We did it in 2009 and again in 2012. I am so proud of the work done by my students and teachers. This is a great accomplishment."   

U.S. News & World Report awarded more than 4,850 gold, silver, and bronze medals to the top-performing schools.

U.S. News & World Report determines its rankings by analyzing schools at the state level in terms of how well students in each school performed on state assessments.

High schools are then evaluated based on the degree to which they prepare students for college-level work by analyzing student success in Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) programs.

To view the list, click www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools