Two Cedar Rapids high schools take 'most challenging' honors

The Washington Post has listed seven Iowa schools on its annual ranking of the nation's most challenging public high schools.

Washington High School in Cedar Rapids placed 408th on the list of over 1,900 schools, which according to the Post represents 9 percent of the 22,000 institutions that qualified for the list. Inclusion in the rankings was based on the Challenge Index, a score determined by dividing the sum of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and Advanced International Certificate of Education exams given at a school during the 2012 academic year by the amount of May or June graduating seniors from that same school year. Washington's Challenge Index is 3.14, the highest in the state of Iowa for the third year in a row.

Kennedy High School, also in Cedar Rapids, ranked second in the state and 615th nationally with a score of 2.57. Iowa City West High School placed fifth in the state, following Ames High School and Roosevelt High School in Des Moines, with a Challenge Index of 1.96 and a nationwide ranking of 1,024. Mid-Prairie High School in Wellman and Decorah High School took the state's respective sixth- and seventh-place slots. Mid-Prairie's index is 1.85 while Decorah's is 1.17, respectively ranking the schools at 1,113 and 1,778 nationally.

To read more about the list, click

here.