High schools reflect the surrounding communities. A high school in an area where most of the parents are married, educated professionals will be geared towards graduating kids who are going to go down the same life path. Meanwhile, high schools where the community consists of uneducated dropouts is probably going to end up producing more of the same.
Look at the high schools in Montgomery County in Marlyand or Fairfax County in Virginia and compare them to the schools in DC, or schools in certain parts of the country where high school football is taken more seriously than AP courses.
I have relatives in Fairfax and Montgomery Counties...ever different from DC.