A Decade of the Challenge Index: Send Me Your School and Your Opinion

Below is the first Challenge Index that appeared in the Post magazine

CAPTION: How demanding are Washington area high schools? Here each public high school is ranked by a number rating that reflects how much a school encourages students to take Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) courses and their internationally recognized tests. The rating is not a measurement of the quality of a school overall or the achievements of its students and faculty -- it is strictly focused on AP and IB courses. The rating is determined by dividing the number of AP and IB tests taken by students at a school in 1997 by the number of students in the school's graduating class last June.

Compared with high schools across the country, Washington area schools overall are among the most encouraging of AP and IB testing. For instance, any school with a rating of 1.000 or above is in at least the top 2 percent of all U.S. high schools in encouraging students to take AP and IB courses.

Most schools use AP tests and some use both AP and IB. Schools measured by their IB tests are marked with an asterisk. Also listed are the name of the school district and the percentage of a school's students whose family incomes are low enough to qualify for federally subsidized lunches and who also apply for that program. The number of subsidized-lunch applicants is provided as a rough indicator of the socioeconomic factors that may affect a school's performance or expectations. The number of such applicants usually understates the portion of poor children in a given school.

School/District/Index/Percent Subsidized Lunches

George Mason* Falls Church 3.146 (10%)

H-B Woodlawn Arlington 2.676 (13%)

Richard Montgomery* Montgomery 2.316 (13%)

Langley Fairfax 1.987 (1%)

West Potomac Fairfax 1.597 (25%)

Madison Fairfax 1.415 (6%)

Yorktown Arlington 1.414 (14%)

McLean Fairfax 1.398 (10%)

Wilson D.C. 1.281 (23%)

Churchill Montgomery 1.253 (2%)

Oakton Fairfax 1.238 (8%)

Wootton Montgomery 1.234 (3%)

Woodson Fairfax 1.196 (7%)

Marshall Fairfax 1.193 (25%)

Montgomery Blair Montgomery 1.177 (24%)

Eleanor Roosevelt Prince George's 1.173 (19%)

Whitman Montgomery 1.170 (2%)

Centreville Fairfax 1.160 (10%)

Mount Vernon* Fairfax 1.156 (33%)

Walter Johnson Montgomery 1.123 (6%)

Bethesda-Chevy Chase Montgomery 1.084 (11%)

South Lakes Fairfax 1.069 (16%)

Robinson Fairfax 1.055 (8%)

Washington-Lee Arlington 1.039 (37%)

School Without Walls D.C. 1.012 (0%)

Central* Prince George's 1.010 (42%)

Poolesville Montgomery 1.009 (4%)

Hylton Prince William 0.991 (7%)

Chantilly Fairfax 0.989 (8%)

Centennial Howard 0.986 (2%)

West Springfield Fairfax 0.984 (6%)

Stonewall Jackson* Prince William 0.946 (17%)

Woodbridge Prince William 0.944 (15%)

Quince Orchard Montgomery 0.943 (10%)

Falls Church Fairfax 0.938 (35%)

Brentsville Prince William 0.936 (5%)

Lake Braddock Fairfax 0.930 (13%)

Herndon Fairfax 0.904 (13%)

Gar-Field Prince William 0.885 (15%)

Loudoun Valley Loudoun 0.857 (6%)

Fairfax Fairfax 0.833 (18%)

Sherwood Montgomery 0.774 (9%)

Stuart* Fairfax 0.757 (54%)

Broadneck Anne Arundel 0.748 (2%)

Wakefield Arlington 0.722 (47%)

Severna Park Anne Arundel 0.715 (2%)

Liberty Fauquier 0.711 (11%)

Fauquier Fauquier 0.674 (7%)

Magruder Montgomery 0.674 (15%)

Bell Multicultural D.C. 0.653 (n/a)

South River Anne Arundel 0.650 (3%)

Paint Branch Montgomery 0.647 (10%)

Einstein Montgomery 0.633 (27%)

Springbrook Montgomery 0.630 (23%)

Osbourn Park Prince William 0.621 (11%)

Westlake Charles 0.615 (7%)

T.C. Williams Alexandria 0.613 (33%)

Edison Fairfax 0.606 (25%)

Annapolis Anne Arundel 0.603 (11%)

Lackey Charles 0.578 (20%)

Lee Fairfax 0.571 (22%)

Rockville Montgomery 0.563 (20%)

Broad Run Loudoun 0.548 (3%)

Glenelg Howard 0.521 (2%)

Loudoun County Loudoun 0.510 (11%)

Leonardtown St. Mary's 0.508 (12%)

Hayfield Fairfax 0.508 (23%)

Chesapeake Anne Arundel 0.504 (3%)

Northern Calvert 0.497 (6%)

Mount Hebron Howard 0.486 (6%)

Oakland Mills Howard 0.469 (11%)

Watkins Mill Montgomery 0.459 (15%)

Atholton Howard 0.454 (4%)

Kennedy Montgomery 0.441 (20%)

Oxon Hill Prince George's 0.436 (23%)

Wilde Lake Howard 0.426 (15%)

Old Mill Anne Arundel 0.424 (7%)

Damascus Montgomery 0.411 (5%)

Seneca Valley Montgomery 0.397 (15%)

Northeast Anne Arundel 0.394 (6%)

Potomac Prince William 0.391 (21%)

Park View Loudoun 0.382 (10%)

La Plata Charles 0.380 (13%)

Great Mills St. Mary's 0.368 (23%)

McDonough Charles 0.362 (9%)

High Point Prince George's 0.358 (49%)

Annandale Fairfax 0.337 (33%)

Arundel Anne Arundel 0.333 (3%)

Bowie Prince George's 0.322 (15%)

Calvert Calvert 0.308 (10%)

Surrattsville Prince George's 0.294 (15%)

Northwestern Prince George's 0.290 (53%)

Southern Anne Arundel 0.276 (7%)

Hammond Howard 0.273 (6%)

Osbourn Manassas 0.269 (9%)

Gaithersburg Montgomery 0.268 (19%)

Chopticon St. Mary's 0.266 (10%)

Stone Charles 0.261 (14%)

Parkdale Prince George's 0.238 (53%)

Wheaton Montgomery 0.238 (34%)

Laurel Prince George's 0.236 (31%)

Suitland* Prince George's 0.230 (34%)

Douglass Prince George's 0.215 (16%)

Meade Anne Arundel 0.200 (17%)

Cardozo D.C. 0.169 (n/a)

Eastern D.C. 0.168 (52%)

Howard Howard 0.159 (7%)

North County Anne Arundel 0.159 (9%)

DuVal Prince George's 0.150 (32%)

Glen Burnie Anne Arundel 0.146 (8%)

Fairmont Heights Prince George's 0.144 (37%)

Friendly Prince George's 0.135 (18%)

Largo Prince George's 0.122 (20%)

Anacostia D.C. 0.111 (58%)

Ellington D.C. 0.107 (19%)

Gwynn Park Prince George's 0.106 (12%)

Coolidge D.C. 0.093 (36%)

Roosevelt D.C 0.083 (52%)

Crossland Prince George's 0.067 (34%)

Potomac Prince George's 0.066 (47%)

Ballou D.C. 0.049 (n/a)

Dunbar D.C. 0.041 (43%)

Forestville Prince George's 0.036 (42%)

Bladensburg Prince George's 0.017 (50%)

***

Two schools, Thomas Jefferson in Fairfax (4.879) and Banneker in the District (1.305), were omitted because they are allowed to select all of their students on the basis of academic merit. Ratings could not be calculated for Long Reach and River Hill in Howard, Blake in Montgomery, Patuxent in Calvert, and Potomac Falls in Loudoun because they are new schools that did not have full senior classes in 1997. Three schools in the District, Phelps, Spingarn and Woodson, like 47 percent of American high schools, did not give AP or IB tests in 1997.

Sources: State, district and school officials, Washingtonian magazine (for subsidized-lunch information).

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