I finally had a chance to check online...thank you, everyone, for sharing your thoughts and observations! My OP had many issues embedded - NMSP as indicator, IB vs. AP, gifted vs high achievement � so I appreciate the various thoughts.

Twomoose, thanks for offering some key questions for me to consider:
Originally Posted by twomoose
Mominsac- if I had to choose, I'd think about some other metrics
1) If they offer AP classes, how many do they offer, and do the classes fit my child's interests?
2) How do the students do on the AP exams -what percentage of the grades are "passing" (or better yet, what percentage are "5s")?
3) Does the school offer arts, sports, clubs, etc. that interest my child?
4) What is the average SAT score (or middle 50%)?
5) How do the students fare in college placement? How is their guidance/college counseling department?

Of the two local HSs we would consider both in same district, HS w/AP (12 offered), HS w/IB:

1) IB school has clearly higher average SATs, but again, as with the NMSP finalists, this may be more a function of its magnate status attracting the area higher achieving kids.
2) Socioeconomically, the IB school is more diverse, as it offers plenty of non-IB programs that may be considered lower end of the academic spectrum, the neighborhood is very mixed, and the IB is a magnate attracting high-achievers from wide tri-county area.
3) I should look at the AP scores, and better understand the college placements for both HSs (are such info public?). I only know anecdotally: �colleges only choose certain number of kids from each HS, so harder to get into choice colleges if one attended IB HS with its concentration of highly motivated achievers�, �despite all the work, xyz student doing IB didn�t get into any choice schools�, �xyz student at the AP school still got into some top schools etc so didn�t matter if he/she didn�t go the IB route� etc etc....

In addition:
1) I�ve been on the e-mail distributions for both HSs monthly newsletter, to get a �pulse� of what goes on in both high schools � the IB HS seems more active in offering additional academic services, related to college, etc....
2) The IB HS has more academic club offerings (debate, science olympiad, sci Bowl, History Bowl, etc etc the list goes on.) The AP HS, unfortunately, not as many.
3) The AP HS (for that matter other HSs in the area including privates in the area), with its more homogenous and advantaged student population, has more team sport offerings, but the two sports of our interests, swimming and tennis, the IB HS has decent teams. (both DDs swim year-around at club level, so not sure if it will matter to them greatly or not whether the HS team is good or not...)
4) IB HS has a far superior arts/studio arts program (which is one of my DDs passion), but IB Art seems like a LOT of work. (great if you don�t have the other courseload!) From what I gather, the AP HS has very little Art offering.
5) I�ve also heard that the IB curriculum is more humanistic and less science/math oriented, but in our �Local� region, the IB HS has the stronger science/math program producing the science award-winning type students. In fact, I called the AP HS to inquire about their math program since I noted they had no math offerings beyond Calculus BC, and my DDs would be on track to complete that by their Junior year.....I was told by the guidance counselor that they highly recommended students to re-take Algebra 2 in HS (!)

So, these are the information specific to our local HSs that I�m grappling with right now....that's why I was interested in hearing others observation about the correlation between the HS programs and NMSP finalists, knowing that, of course, specifics of the situation will impact the outcome...

I welcome any other correlation observations. thanks!