Fayette County schools are on the list of nationally recognized schools again. Published June 8 in Newsweek magazine, Starr’s Mill and McIntosh high schools were recognized as being in the top 1,500 U.S. high schools in terms of graduating seniors taking Advanced Placement and other tests. Starr’s Mill was ranked 978 and McIntosh was ranked 1,329.

According to the Newsweek report, the survey ranked public schools according to the number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and/or Cambridge tests taken by all students at a school in 2008 divided by the number of graduating seniors. The 1,500 schools are in the top 6 percent of public schools measured this way, according to Newsweek.

Fayette School Superintendent John DeCotis said that ongoing efforts to Fayette’s commitment to academic success is continuing to pay off.

“We’ve been working on our participation with Advanced Placement testing over the past several years. I feel like we’ve been making progress. We’ve made a push to get more students involved to raise the bar. I’m happy to see that we’re on the list,” DeCotis said.

Other Fayette schools have recently been honored for AP achievement. In 2008, Fayette County High School and Sandy Creek High School were two of the 80 high schools in Georgia named as Advanced Placement (AP) Honor Schools by the Georgia Department of Education.

A 2001 study referenced on the U.S. Department of Education website noted a total of 26,407 public secondary schools in the United States.