Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology

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Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology is a Virginia state-chartered magnet school in Fairfax County, Virginia. It is a regional high school operated by Fairfax County Public Schools.As a publicly funded and administered high school with a selective admission process, it is often compared with notable public magnet schools, although it discontinued non-application based admission after the class of 1988. Attendance at the school is open to students in six local jurisdictions based on an admissions test, prior academic achievement, recommendations, and essays. The selective admissions program was initiated in 1985 through the cooperation of state and county governments, as well as corporate sponsorship from the defense and technology industries. The school occupies the building of the previous Thomas Jefferson High School . It is one of 18 Virginia Governor's Schools, and a founding member of the National Consortium for Specialized Secondary Schools of Mathematics, Science and Technology. In 2016, the school placed first in Newsweek's annual "America's Top High Schools" rankings for the third consecutive year and fifth in US News & World Report's 2016 High School Rankings.