What Are the Best High Schools in the East Bay 'Burbs?

Each year, Newsweek picks the best high schools in America "based on how hard schools work to challenge students" with advanced-placement college-level  courses and tests. Most high schools along the I-680 corridor made it into the magazine's top 1600; some did not. 

The magazine ranks the schools according to a "challenge index," a ratio calculated by dividing the total number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate or Cambridge (AICE) tests given with the number of graduating seniors at a school in the previous year.

What do you think of this way of ranking schools?

Las Lomas High is on Newsweek's list, but Northgate High School didn't make is; no high school in the Mt. Diablo Unified School Unified School District did. Should Northgate be here? Newsweek acknowledges that it sometimes misses schools.

Also missing is the new Dougherty Valley High School in San Ramon, perhaps because it only graduated its first class just this June.

The schools are listed below according to how Newsweek ranked them, with the first school (Miramonte High) being the highest on the list. We added some numbers for each school, based on 2008-09 data from the state Department of Education, including number of AP classes and the number of AP test takers, which includes 11th graders as well. We also list for each school another widely used measure of a school's performance: the Academic Performance Index (API) score. The API number listed is for the 2009 base API.

Miramonte, Orinda
Newsweek rank: 336        
Students: 1350
AP Classes: 37
No. Grade 12 students: 363
No. AP test takers: 461
API: 928

Foothill, Pleasanton
Newsweek rank: 404
Students: 2347
AP Classes: 49
No. Grade 12 students: 591
No. AP test takers: 621
API: 889         

Campolindo,  Moraga
Newsweek rank: 440
Students: 1385
AP Classes: 39
No. Grade 12 students: 303
No. AP test takers: 419
API: 919

Acalanes,  Lafayette
Newsweek rank: 540
Students: 1320
AP Classes: 27
No. Grade 12 students: 325
No. AP test takers: 398
API: 902

Amador Valley,  Pleasanton
Newsweek rank: 603
Students: 2517
AP Classes: 50
No. Grade 12 students: 563
No. AP test takers: 616
API: 879         

Las Lomas, Walnut Creek
Newsweek rank: 641
Students: 1509
AP Classes: 37
No. Grade 12 students: 392
No. AP test takers: 428
API: 858         

San Ramon Valley,  Danville
Newsweek rank: 1035
Students: 2017
AP Classes: 29
No. Grade 12 students: 508
No. AP test takers: 444
API: 884         

Monte Vista,  Danville
Newsweek rank: 1439
Students: 2,299
AP Classes: 32
No. Grade 12 students: 664
No. AP test takers: 429
API: 897         

California, San Ramon
Newsweek rank: 1469
Students: 2450
AP Classes: 31
No. Grade 12 students: 680
No. AP test takers: 400
API: 879         

Northgate High, Walnut Creek
Students: 1529
AP Classes: 23
No. Grade 12 students: 394
No. AP test takers: 247
API: 855

Dougherty Valley,  San Ramon
(Based on 2008-09 data)
Students: 1001
AP Classes: 12
No. Grade 12 students: 0
No. AP test takers: 195
API: 905