St. Charles East, North Ranked Among the Most Challenging High Schools in State: Washington Post

St. Charles North and East high schools been ranked among the most-challenging high schools in the United States, according to recently released rankings from the Washington Post.

The Washington Post uses an index formula, which is a ratio that looks at the number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and Advanced International Certificate of Education tests given at a school each year and divides that by the number of seniors who graduated that year. A ratio of 1.000 means the school had as many tests as graduates and in most cases, those schools were placed on the most-challenging list.

Washington Post reporter Jay Mathews writes:

I think 1.00 is a modest standard. A school can reach that level if only half of its students take one AP, IB or Cambridge test in their junior year and one in their senior year. But this year, just more than 10 percent of the approximately 22,000 U.S. public high schools managed to reach that standard and earn placement on our list. On our list, the top 220 schools are in the top 1 percent nationally, the top 440 in the top 2 percent, and so on.

>>> More details on the rankings can be found here

In Illinois, College Prep School of America, a private school in Lombard, was ranked as the most challenging school in the state. Locally, St. Charles North was ranked as the 42nd most-challenging school in the state while St. Charles East High School was not far behind on the list, receiving a ranking of 43rd most-challenging school in the state.

Here is a look at the top ten most-challenging high schools in the state:

1. College Prep School of America in Lombard
2. Islamic Foundation School in Villa Park
3. Lincoln Park High School in Chicago
4. Whitney M. Young Magnet in Chicago
5. Adlai E. Stevenso High School in Lincolnshire
6. Barrington High School in Barrington
7. Lane Tech in Chicago
8. Westmont High School in Westmont
9. Jones College Prep in Chicago
10. Evanston Township High School in Evanston

The full list of Illinois' most-challenging schools can be found here.