Orcas Island High School has once again been named to U.S. News and World Report’s “America’s Best High Schools” list.

The top schools were placed into gold, silver, bronze, or honorable mention categories. Orcas High received a bronze award, and was the only San Juan County school to be recognized. More than 21,786 schools in the country were examined.

Last year Orcas School received a silver award.

U.S. News collaborated with School Evaluation Services, a K-12 education data research business run by Standard & Poor’s. The methodology was based on the principles that an excellent high school is one that serves all of its students well (not just those headed for university) and can produce academic results that demonstrate it is educating students across a wide range of performance indicators.

For more information about “America’s Best High Schools 2009” visit www.usnews.com/sections/education/high-schools/index.html