U.S. News & World Report recently released its annual list of the top high schools in the nation with  Early High School being among the silver medal of honor winners.

“Early is proud to receive the silver medal of honor and be named as one of the best high schools in the United States for the third consecutive year,” said EHS principal Lisa Kent.

According to U.S. News and World Report, schools were awarded gold, silver or bronze medals based on their performance on state assessments and how well they prepare students for college.  To produce the 2014 U.S. News & World Report Best High Schools rankings, U.S. News teamed up with the Washington, D.C.-based American Institutes for Research, one of the largest behavioral and social science research organizations in the world.

AIR implemented the U.S. News comprehensive rankings methodology, which is 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.

The methodology used in the 2014 Best High Schools rankings was unchanged from the 2013 edition.

The process started with analysis of 31,242 public high schools in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. That number was reduced to 19,411 schools, which is the total number of public high schools across the country that had high enough 12th-grade enrollment and sufficient data from the 2011-2012 school year to be eligible for the rankings.

There were 357 high schools which qualified for top ranking honors given by U.S. News and World Report.  Early High School ranked 141st in the state of Texas and 1455th in the nation.  According to the report, EHS showed a college readiness of 26.6%.  There are 340 students and 35 teachers on the campus, giving a 10:1 student-teacher ratio.

Texas high school students are tested in English language arts, reading, math, science and social studies. To graduate from a Texas high school, students must earn at least 22 credits, including one credit of fine arts and a half credit in speech, according to the Texas Education Agency.

For a full list of the Best High Schools ranked by U.S. News and World Report, click here.

Pictured above are EHS Cheerleaders with the banner for the silver medal of honor.