High School Challenges Ranked by Washington Post

Hi there! I heard Washington Post has a list of the most challenging high schools. I'm just curious, what qualifies a school for this list? And if you know, which schools are on it?

The Washington Post's list of America's Most Challenging High Schools serves as a measure of how well schools nationwide are preparing students for college by exposing them to a rigorous curriculum. Primarily, schools are ranked based on the challenge index invented by Jay Mathews, an education journalist at The Post.

This Challenge Index is calculated by taking the total number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, and Advanced International Certificate of Education tests given at a particular school each year, then dividing that by the number of seniors who graduated that year. This produces a ratio representing the school's commitment to pushing students beyond typical high school curriculums.

It's important to note that while this index is a useful tool, it doesn't take into account the whole picture of a school's performance; for instance, it doesn't account for the performance level of the students on those tests, it only considers the number of challenging college-level exams taken by all students at the school, not only the top students.

Unfortunately, the list of schools is extensive and changes over time, with new rankings released annually. I cannot provide a current list in this response. I would recommend checking the Washington Post's website to find the most recent list.