(H/T Colorado Charters) Newsweek magazine has released its annual list of “America’s best high schools,” and Lafayette’s Peak to Peak Charter School tops the competition in the state with a 35th ranking nationally. The next closest from Colorado are Niwot High School at #180, Boulder’s Fairview High School at #201, and Lakewood High School at #228.

But does the list really capture “America’s best high schools”? Two years ago one of the Ed News Colorado bloggers correctly pointed out the weaknesses and limitations that would omit the Denver School of Science and Technology, for example, from this list. And Newsweek‘s methodology hasn’t changed since then.

Take the news for what it’s worth. Peak to Peak Charter School is doing something right by encouraging lots of its students to take classes of the challenging Advanced Placement variety. But it’s really stretching the matter to say definitively that it’s one of the 35 best high schools in the nation.