ECA Ranked as Top High School in NM by U.S. News

La Cueva and Eldorado were also listed among the state's top 10 high schools and Sandia received an honorable mention.

May 15, 2012

Albuquerque Public Schools Early College Academy was ranked as the top high school in New Mexico by U.S. News and World Report in its annual listing of the nation’s top public high schools. La Cueva and Eldorado high schools also were listed in the top 10 and Sandia received an honorable mention.

In its fourth edition of the Best High Schools, available exclusively online, U.S. News ranked ECA, an APS magnet school, as the best high school in the state. La Cueva was ranked sixth and Eldorado was seventh. Each of the schools received a silver medal. Sandia earned a bronze medal.   

U.S. News analyzed nearly 22,000 high schools in 49 states and the District of Columbia. Schools were measured on a college readiness index. The top 500 schools in the nation received gold medals. The next 1,500 received silver medals. Those rounding out the top 5,000 received bronze medals.

No New Mexico public high schools earned a gold medal.

According to the U.S. News website, schools were analyzed on how well students performed on the state assessment as well as in Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate (IB) programs. APS is in the process of starting up its first IB program at Sandia.

The Early College Academy is a college-prep magnet high school and sister school to the Career Enrichment Center that focuses on college preparation. Classes are offered to 200 students in a small school environment. ECA classes are scheduled in the morning so that students may take CEC, UNM or CNM classes in the afternoon. UNM and CNM classes may apply toward an associate's or university degree.

ECA’s small-school environment offers students an intimate and personalized college-readiness learning experience.