By Hailey Hagemaster
News Editor
Graphic by Ana Biccoli

Metea takes the top of the Valley by beating out Neuqua and Waubonsie Valley for The Washington Post’s “America’s Most Challenging High Schools.”

Based on Advanced Placement test data and the number of students who took the test in the 15-16 school year, the rankings were determined by a formula of the amount of tests taken and the number of seniors that graduated.

“We take the total number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and Cambridge tests given at a school each year and divide by the number of seniors who graduated in May or June. I call this formula the ‘Challenge Index’,” Jay Mathews in “How America’s Most Challenging High School list works” on The Washington Post said.

All three schools in District 204 managed to make the list out over 20,000 U.S. public schools that get ranked.

“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,” said Mathews.

Metea was ranked 878th with Neuqua following with a 1,176th place listing, and Waubonsie with at 1,427th.

“The Challenge Index is designed to identify schools that have done the best job in persuading average students to take college-level courses and tests,” said Mathews.

Metea offers many Advanced Placement classes and the teachers highly recommend to take the tests held in May. The test is administered by the College Board, and graded by a professor or teacher.

“I decided not to count passing rates in this way because I found that many high schools kept those rates artificially high by allowing only top students to take the courses,” said Mathews.

Prior to the “Most Challenging High School” list, the US News and Report released a ranking list of America’s best high schools. The schools were picked according to state tests, graduation rates, and overall college readiness. For this listing, Metea ranks 1,020th in the nation and 34th in the state.

“I believe that all three of our high schools are highly challenging. We are unique in that our focus has been on positive relationships and engagement in learning and life,” Dr. Quynh Harvey said.