'America's Most Challenging High Schools:' Brick, Brick Memorial Aren't Ranked, But What Does It Mean?

Are Brick Township’s schools challenging students sufficiently? A list released by the Washington Post this week suggests that answer is no.

But a closer look at the list raises questions about how the ranking of “ America’s Most Challenging High Schools” was reached.

The Washington Post listed 2,300 high schools around the nation -- out of a possible 22,000 -- that it defined as challenging, based on one metric: How many of a school’s students took an Advanced Placement or other college-level test last year, compared with the number of students who graduated from that high school last year.

The other tests considered are the International Baccalaureate and Advanced International Certificate of Education tests, according to the Washington Post article.

To make the list, a school had to have a score of 1.000 or better. To achieve that score, the school had to have as many college-level tests given last year as the number of students who graduated. Magnet schools were not included on the list.

Using Brick Township High School as an example, if there were 300 graduates last year, there would need to be 300 AP tests taken by Brick Township High School students to make the list.

The Post defends the rankings as ”a modest standard,” saying, “A school can reach that level if only half of its students take one AP, IB or AICE test in their junior year and one in their senior year.”

So students taking multiple AP tests helps a school’s ratio.

Students must pay to take an Advanced Placement test. The fee is $91 per test, though there are some fee reductions available for students who qualify based on financial need.

According to the 2014 U.S. News & World Report report on the Best High Schools in New Jersey, Brick High School had a participation rate of 12 percent on the AP tests in 2012-13. Brick Memorial had 13 percent of its students take an AP test that year.

The district has been working to increase participation in Advanced Placement courses and tests, and was named to the College Board’s 2014 AP District Honor Roll for increasing access to the courses while at the same time maintaining the percentage of students passing the tests by scoring a 3 or better. A perfect score is 5. At Brick High School, 76 percent of the students who took AP tests scored 3 or better, while at Brick Memorial 78 percent scored 3 or better. The district also was named to the honor roll in 2012.

The benefit of taking an AP test is that students who do score 3 or better are able to receive college credit at many colleges and universities, allowing them to spend tuition dollars on other courses.

The Post says taking the tests at all is important:

“AP, IB and AICE are important because they give average students a chance to experience the trauma of heavy college reading lists and long, analytical college examinations. Research has found that even low-performing students who got a 2 on an AP test did significantly better in college than similar students who did not take AP.”

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