Six high schools in Fayette and Coweta counties have been named as “America’s Most Challenging High Schools” by the Washington Post 2015 index of the country’s top secondary schools.
McIntosh, Starr’s Mill, Whitewater and Fayette County high schools in Fayette County and Northgate and East Coweta high schools in Coweta county were named to the 2015 list that surveyed approximately 22,000 public and private high schools across the nation.
Previously tabulated by Newsweek magazine, the Washington Post takes the total number of Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate and Advanced International Certificate of Education tests given at a school each year and divides by the number of seniors who graduated in May or June. A score greater than “1.00” on the survey means that a high school had as many tests in 2014 as they had graduates.
The survey listed 2,327 high schools, roughly 11 percent of the nation’s schools to qualify for the index.
Of the 22,000 public and private high schools surveyed, McIntosh’s ranking was placed at 1,306 while Starr’s Mill was 1,489, Whitewater was 1,637 and Fayette County High was 2,105.
In Coweta, Northgate was ranked 1,984 out of 22,000 high schools and East Coweta was ranked 2,113.
The survey showed that four of Fayette’s five high schools and two of Coweta’s three high schools made the list.
The survey also catalogued school rankings by state. Georgia had 149 high schools that made the cut and were named Most Challenging.
Viewed from the state perspective, McIntosh was ranked at 70 out of 149 while Starr’s Mill came in at 78, Whitewater at 87 and Fayette County High at 123.
In Coweta, Northgate was ranked 110 out of 149 and East Coweta ranked 124.
The reason the number of tests given is counted rather than how well students did on the tests because it was found that many high schools kept those rates artificially high by allowing only top students to take the courses. 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, according to the Washington Post.
A complete list of the 2015 “America’s Most Challenging High Schools” can be found at apps.washingtonpost.com/local/highschoolchallenge/schools/2015/list/national/.
