USnews.com reviewed a little more than 31,000 U.S. public schools for the annual report on the Best High Schools in the United States. That number then was revised to 19,411-which is the total number of public high schools across the country that had high enough 12th-grade enrollment and sufficient data from the 2011-2012 school year to be eligible for the rankings.

98 of those high schools were from our very own home sweet home—Iowa—which has one of the highest high school graduation rates in the nation.

Built into Iowa’s state curriculum are lessons to provide students with “21st Century Skills,” which include civic, financial, health and technology literacy, as well as employment skills, according to the Iowa Department of Education.

However, the number one best high school in Iowa is still number 708 out of the 19,400 high schools reviewed. Iowa’s top-ranked high school is located in the Cedar Rapids Community School District, which is roughly 130 miles from the state capital of Des Moines. The two closest schools that made the list are both 8.4 driving miles away from North—Johnston and then Valley.

Now, in the DMPS school district, there are seven schools not including Lincoln RAILS Academy, Central Academy and Central Campus. Of the seven, is our very own North High School.

No, North is not nationally ranked on this report. However, we are moving on up not only on the outside, but the inside. In addition to the countless improvements in the school’s outside skeleton, the new administration has set its eyes on raising the bar in the classroom by looking at new innovative teaching methods.