U.S. News and World Report recently released its annual rankings of America’s best high schools. Beyond national and statewide rankings, the group calculated rankings by metro area within each state.

The Birmingham metro area had nine schools in the state’s list of Top 25 high schools, the most of any region. Mountain Brook and Homewood High Schools were ranked 2nd and 3rd statewide, respectively.

U.S. News said its rankings were based primarily on test scores for math, reading and science. They also looked at underserved student performance, focusing on students who are Black, Hispanic or from low-income households; college readiness, which measures participation and performance on Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate exams; curriculum breadth and graduation rates.

If a school’s individual rank is listed as part of a range, that means the school was ranked in the bottom 25% nationally.

The full list of best high schools in the Birmingham area can be found here. The breakdown of the top 25 high schools in Alabama can be found here.

>