Vienna Schools Are Among Most Challenging In Virginia

VIENNA, VA -- Oakton High School is ranked fourth and James Madison High School eighth on the Washington Post's Most Challenging High Schools list thanks to an uptick in students taking college-level tests.

Nationally, Oakton is 168, an improvement from 175 last year. Madison is 207, which changed from 265.

The rankings are a bit different from other studies because of a focus on how many students take the test rather than how did they score. Every year, Washington Post columnist Jay Mathews ranks "America's Most Challenging High Schools" by dividing the number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and Advanced International Certificate of Education tests given each year by the number of graduating seniors.

Oakton High's index score is 5.308, while 70.8 percent of students overall have taken college-level tests at some point. Madison scored 4.901, while 72.7 percent of its students have taken college-level tests.

Schools near the top are a bit different from other lists, but there's no doubt they are high performing schools. And while Northern Virginia boasts the state's top schools, it can also claim the spot for most difficult schools.

Here the top ten most challenging schools in Virginia and their index scores:

1. H-B Woodlawn: Arlington, 6.229
2. Yorktown High School: Arlington, 5.856
3. Washington-Lee High School: Arlington, 5.693
4. Oakton High School: Vienna, 5.308
5. George Mason High School: Falls Church, 5.117
6. McLean High School: McLean, 5.018
7. Langley High School: McLean, 5
8. James Madison High School: Vienna, 4.901
9. Robinson Secondary School: Fairfax, 4.290
10. Lake Braddock Secondary School: Burke, 4.238

The most challenging schools in the nation and their index scores are:

1. BASIS Phoenix: Phoenix, Ariz., 26.25
2. Mickey Leland College Prep: Houston, Texas, 21
3. IDEA Frontier College Prep: Brownsville, Texas, 19.596
4. IDEA Mission College Prep: Mission, Texas, 18.831
5. IDEA San Juan College Prep: San Juan, Texas, 18.821
6. IDEA San Benito College Prep: San Benito, Texas, 17.264
7. Signature School: Evansville, Ind., 17.25
8. BASIS Oro Valley: Oro Valley, Ariz., 16.789
9. IDEA Quest College Prep: Edinburg, Texas, 16.19
10. BASIS Flagstaff: Flagstaff, Ariz., 15.2

Read the full list of Most Challenging High Schools here.

What do you think of the difficulty ratings? Let us know in the comments below.

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