The Washington Post: America's Most Challenging Schools: Making the grade - Columbia Heights Educational Campus
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PRESS ROOM > Print Media > CHEC in the News
EDUCATION
JAY MATHEWS
America's Most Challenging High Schools: Making the grade
America’s Most Challenging High Schools ranks schools through an index invented by Washington Post education columnist Jay Mathews. The index formula is a simple ratio: the number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and Advanced International Certificate of Education tests given at a school in 2015, divided by the number of graduates that year. Noted in our national and local tables are the percentage of students eligible for government meal subsidies — a common benchmark for poverty — and each school’s average scores on the SAT, a common college entrance exam with a national average of 1497 out of 2400.
Mathews considers college test participation a better measure of school success than test scores, which largely reflect parental income. Schools with ratios of 1.000 or above make the list. The list has grown to include nearly 2,300 schools across the country and more than 180 in the Washington region. It includes some private schools - noted with a (P) - for comparison. Certain public schools with highly selective admissions are omitted from the list, but information about them can be found online, along with full local and national lists, at washingtonpost.com/highschoolchallenge.
Regional Rankings
The top 50 Washington-area schools, as ranked. The Washington Post's Jay Mathews. Principal schools are marked with a (p).
| RANK | SCHOOL | LOCATION | CHALLENG RATING | MEALS SUBSIDY % | AVERAGE SAT SCORE |
1. | Washington International (P) | Washington, D.C. | 6.922 | n/a | 1888 |
| 2. | Winston Churchill | Potomac, md | 6.488 | 4 | 1836 |
| 3. | School Without Walls | Washington, D.C | 5.893 | 20 | 1738 |
| 4. | Washington-Lee | Arlington, VA | 5.714 | 33 | 1697 |
| 5. | Richard Montgomery | Rockville MD | 5.469 | 18 | 1743 |
| 6. | McLean | Fairfax County VA | 5.426 | 9 | 1852 |
| 7. | H-B Woodlawn | ArlingtonVA | 5.418 | 18 | 1821 |
| 8. | Bethesda Chevy Chase | Bethesda MD | 5.383 | 12 | 1763 |
| 9. | Poolesville | Poolesville MD | 5.351 | 7 | 1886 |
| 10. | Oakton | Fairfax County VA | 5.239 | 13 | 1792 |
| 11. | Yorktown | Arlington VA | 5.165 | 14 | 1772 |
| 12. | Walt Whitman | Bethesda MD | 5.097 | 2 | 1872 |
| 13. | Quince Orchard | Gaithersburg MD | 5.012 | 22 | 1624 |
| 14. | George Mason | Falls Church VA | 4.941 | 7 | 1776 |
| 15. | Walter Johnson | Bethesda MD | 4.633 | 7 | 1751 |
| 16. | Thomas S. Wootton | Rockville MD | 4.558 | 6 | 1831 |
| 17. | James Madison | Fairfax County VA | 4.514 | 10 | 1786 |
| 18. | Holton-Arms (P) | Bethesda MD | 4.431 | n/a | 1976 |
| 19. | Dominion | Sterling VA | 4.411 | 21 | 1638 |
| 20. | Langley | Fairfax County, VA | 4.346 | 2 | 1850 |
| 21. | Centennial | Ellicott City MD | 4.342 | 9 | 1797 |
| 22. | South River | Edgewater MD | 4.310 | 12 | 1581 |
| 23. | Banneker | Washington, D.C. | 4.255 | 65 | 1499 |
| 24. | Herndon | Herndon VA | 4.231 | 39 | 1668 |
| 25. | Centreville | Fairfax County VA | 4.214 | 25 | 1672 |
| 26. | Indian Creek (P) | Crownsville MD | 4.167 | 33 | 1689 |
| 27. | Columbia Heights | Washington, DC | 4.144 | 90 | 1190 |
| 28. | Marriotts Ridge | Marriottsville MD | 4.117 | 5 | 1773 |
| 29. | National Cathedral (P) | Washington, D.C. | 4.105 | n/a | 2096 |
| 30. | Robinson Secondary | Fairfax County VA | 4.097 | 11 | 1728 |
| 31. | River Hill | Clarksville MD | 4.012 | 6 | 1788 |
| 32. | Georgetown Visitation (P) | Washington DC | 4.000 | n/a | 1953 |
| 33. | Lake Braddock Secondary School | Fairfax County VA | 3.962 | 16 | 1692 |
| 34. | Annapolis | Annapolis MD | 3.953 | 49 | 1388 |
| 35. | Severna Park | Severna Park MD | 3.916 | 5 | 1664 |
| 36. | Southern | Harwood MD | 3.851 | 25 | 1467 |
| 37. | Urbana | Ijamsville MD | 3.841 | 5 | 1640 |
| 38. | Broadneck Sr | Annapolis MD | 3.808 | 10 | 1628 |
| 39. | Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart (P) | Bethesda MD | 3.785 | n/a | 1838 |
| 40. | Briar Woods | Ashburn VA | 3.758 | 4 | 1640 |
| 41. | Northwest | Germantown MD | 3.733 | 26 | 1588 |
| 42. | Fairfax | Fairfax VA | 3.707 | 27 | 1675 |
| 43. | West Springfield | Fairfax County VA | 3.677 | 13 | 1705 |
| 44. | W.T. Woodson | Fairfax County VA | 3.637 | 11 | 1810 |
| 45. | Stone Bridge | Ashburn VA | 3.611 | 6 | 1666 |
| 46. | Eleanor Roosevelt | Greenbelt MD | 3.606 | 43 | 1536 |
| 47. | Tuscarora | Leesburg VA | 3.570 | 16 | 1601 |
| 48. | Osbourn Park | Manassas VA | 3.536 | 28 | 1569 |
| 49. | Chesapeake Science | Point Hanover MD | 3.515 | 26 | 1615 |
| 50. | Loudoun County | Leesburg VA | 3.483 | 14 | 1614 |
