Students from seven Chester County schools are once again sitting at the front of the class when it comes to being ready to face the rigors of academia in college.

Two schools ranked in the top 50 of Newsweek’s new list of America’s Top High Schools 2016, with three finishing within the top 100, six in the top 300 and all seven among the 400 high schools that do the best job of producing college-ready kids.

Reigning as Chester County’s top school according to this year’s U.S. News & World Report rankings, Conestoga High School near Berwyn also came in at the top of the class for Newsweek, which had it at No. 36 nationwide.

Close behind was No. 49 Unionville High School in Kennett Square and No. 58 Downingtown STEM Academy.

Newsweek graded its top high schools through an assessment of their test-based college readiness scores, graduation rates, college enrollment rates and poverty rates.

Also making the 500-school honor roll from Chester County were Great Valley High School in Malvern at No. 209, West Chester Bayard Rustin High School at No. 278, West Chester Henderson High School at No. 293 and West Chester East High School at No. 355.

See all the top high schools’ specific scores in each of the rankings criteria on Newsweek here, and check out previous VISTA Today coverage of Chester County’s education accolades here.