UPDATED: Washington Post Ranks Southwest as One of 'Most Challenging' High Schools in Minnesota

Southwest High School made the Washington Post’s list of the most-challenging high schools, according to rankings released last week.

Southwest is the nation's *114th-most challenging high school, according to the rankings and the *second most challenging in Minnesota. St. Louis Park and Edina follow in the No. 3 and No. 4 spots, respectively, for most challenging in the state.

The Washington Post’s High School Challenge ranked schools for for how well they prepared students for college. In all, 1,982 schools made the list—about 9 percent of the country’s approximately 22,000 schools, including 28 in Minnesota.

To grade the schools, the Washington Post divided the number of college preparation tests that students took by the number of graduating seniors. Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and Advanced International Certificate of Education tests were all tallied. Schools with a score above 1.0 made the list. (Southwest's score is 5.071.)

The list excludes magnets and charter schools that have average SAT or ACT scores greater than the highest average for normal enrollment schools—which translates to 2000 for the SAT or 29.3 for the ACT.

Click here to see the full results of the Washington Post High School Challenge.

Editor's Note: Following the publication of this article, the International School of Minnesota was added to the list and ranked as No. 1 on the most challenging list, dropping Southwest to No. 2. This also shifted the national ranking to 114.

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