What a suprise – one of wealthiest towns in metro Detroit – and the nation – has a high school with the best advanced placement program in the country. Bloomfield Hills’ International Academy High School tops Newsweek’s list of public high schools with the highest ratio of IB/AP test takers to the entire senior class in 2002. Both of Ann Arbor’s high schools made the list of 737. What I find baffling is how the only criteria for “Top High Schools” is the number of AP test takers, when similar evaluations of colleges take into consideration a broad variety of variables. Nevertheless, here’s the Michigan schools on the list:

1. International Academy* Bloomfield Hills , Mich 6.323
149. Andover Bloomfield Hills , Mich. 2.086
256. Lahser Bloomfield Hills , Mich. 1.707
272. Grosse Pointe South Grosse Pointe Farms , Mich. 1.660
291. Troy Troy , Mich. 1.606
382. Grosse Pointe North Grosse Pointe Woods , Mich. 1.418
442 . Pioneer Ann Arbor , Mich. 1.353
462. North Farmington Farmington Hills , Mich. 1.320
560. Okemos Okemos , Mich. 1.211
605. Groves Beverly Hills , Mich. 1.148
635. Novi Novi , Mich. 1.106
654. Jenison Jenison , Mich. 1.078
685 . Huron Ann Arbor , Mich. 1.043
699. West Bloomfield West Bloomfield , Mich. 1.036

DetNews: “Oakland school named the best”