Newsweek's revamped list of "America's Best Schools" could shake up some conceptions about which where high schools rank in the Triangle.

Newsweek used a new formula this year that considered factors such as  graduation and college-going rates, as well as SAT, Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate exam scores. Previously, Newsweek looked at AP and IB exams taken by students.

The new methodology led to some major changes compared to rankings in prior years.

A trio of high schools in Wake County were honored by the state today for their graduation rates.

Green Hope High School was honored for having one of the top two graduation rates for schools of between 400 and 499 graduates. Panther Creek High won the same award for schools with 500 or more graduates.

Raleigh Charter High School got the same award for schools with 100 to 199 graduates.

Here are tennis, soccer and cross country scores from Tuesday night.

Tennis:

Raleigh Charter 5, Cedar Ridge  4

Singles: 

Lori Wang (RC) def Hannah Marion 6-0, 6-1,

Mahati Sridhar (RC)  def Emma Newburg 6-4, 6-4,

Delaney King (CR) def Aarti Thakkar 6-2, 6-4,

Shannon Powers (RC) def Mary Kathryn Rodgman 6-1, 6-3,

Laura Keller (RC) def Megan Mauriello 6-1, 6-1,

Jocelyn Proctor (CR) def Divya Rao 6-4, 3-6, 10-7.

This week's statewide soccer rankings are littered with Triangle-area teams.

The average SAT score for the Wake County school system dropped this year.

Looking at just the math and critical reading sections, Wake's average score dropped from 1,073 in 2009 to 1,069 this year. If you also add in the writing section, the combined score dropped from 1,583 to 1,574.

Since scores fluctuate from year to year, school officially generally suggest looking at the results over time. Since 2000, Wake's average score has gone up slightly from 1,061.

Newsweek is out today with its new list of top U.S. high schools and Enloe High has dropped out of the top 100.

Enloe, which has perennially been in the newsmagazine's top 100, came in 127th year. The school was 82nd last year.

Raleigh Charter High remained in the top 100 and was the top school in the state. The school was 42nd this year. It had been 33rd last year.

Conservative businessman Art Pope gave more details today about his school board campaign strategy meeting with Wake County Republican Party officials.

In a meeting today with N&O editors and reporters, Pope said that like other large donors he was given a courtesy meeting with party officials last year to discuss fundraising and campaign strategy. But he said that he only gave his advice about the GOP plan.

Critics of the new school board majority have trumpeted an October e-mail message in which Wake GOP finance chair Marc Scruggs said they had implemented "Art Pope's plan." Pope repeated today his statement that Scruggs gave him too much credit.

North Carolina charter schools made the news last week with a pair of reports with vastly different viewpoints.

A report from the John Locke Foundation, a conservative Raleigh think tank, said that 150 traditional schools across the state would be forced to close if the State Board of Education extended new charter school performance standards to all public schools. In the Wake County school system, that would include three regular schools and one alternative school.

The Locke Foundation argues that it's unfair to hold charter schools to stricter standards than traditional public schools. New standards for charter schools say they can be shut down if for two of three consecutive years they don't meet or exceed 'expected growth' in test scores and have an overall performance composite score of less than 60 percent.

One predominantly black Raleigh charter school got a reprieve today while another is still hanging in the wind.

The state Board of Education voted today to give PreEminent Charter a three-year renewal to see if scores improve. But the board delayed taking action on Torchlight Academy until they get some additional information.

Torchlight could still wind up not having its charter renewed, which would basically mean the school would close at the end of this school year.

Should the state give more latitude to high F&R and minority charter schools before not renewing their charters?

As noted in today's article, representatives from PreEminent Charter and Torchlight Academy, both in Raleigh, are making that case in an attempt to keep their charters. State officials are citing low test scores and other issues for not recommending that their charters be renewed when they expire in June.

"You have to look at more than statistics," said Don McQueen, executive director of Torchlight. "You have to look at the character of the school."