CHEC is #1 in DC, #3 in Metro area in AP rigor
The Washington Post Challenge Index
"AIN'T NO STOPPIN' US NOW!"
2010 - CHEC is recognized as the most academically rigorous public school in DC and ranks third in the region according to the Washington Post’s 2010 Challenge Index, which ranks Washington-area schools based on access to rigorous Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate classes. (more)
BACKGROUND
The Washington Post Challenge Index measures a public high school’s effort to challenge all of its students. The formula is simple: Divide the number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate or other college-level tests a school gave in 2009 by the number of graduating seniors. Tests taken by all students, not just seniors, are counted.
The rating is not a measure of the overall quality of the school but illuminates the one quantifiable factor that seems to reveal best the level of a high school’s commitment to preparing average students for college. When compared with schools across the country, Washington-area schools are overall the most encouraging of college-level testing, as measured by the index. In the list below, any school with a rating of 1.000 or above is in the top 6 percent of all U.S. high schools in encouraging students to take AP, IB or Cambridge tests. That means 77 percent of Washington area schools rank in the top 6 percent of U.S. schools, measured this way.
Also listed is the name of the school district and the percentage of a school’s students whose family incomes are low enough to qualify for federally subsidized lunches and who also apply for that program. The portion of subsidized-lunch applicants is a rough indicator of a school’s poverty level. High poverty schools are at a disadvantage in persuading students to take college-level courses and tests, but some on this list have succeeded in doing so anyway.
In parenthesis after each school’s name is its Equity and Excellence rate, the percentage of all seniors who have had at least one score on an AP, IB or Cambridge test that would qualify them for college credit. The average AP Equity and Excellence rate for all U.S. schools is about 15 percent.
For the 24 schools with AP test passing rates under 10 percent, see the separate 2010 Challenge Index—Catching Up schools list.