For the third time in five years, Grain Valley High School
has been named to the Washington Post’s list of “America’s Most Challenging
High Schools.” Grain Valley High School
is ranked in the top five percent of public high schools in the United States, fifth
in the state of Missouri, and number one among Missouri schools in the Kansas
City Metro.
Rankings are based on the total number of Advanced Placement
and International Baccalaureate tests given at a school each year, divided by
the number of seniors who graduate in May.
The list also looks at ACT scores, Advanced Placement scores (the
percentage of seniors who score a “3” or higher on at least one exam), and free
and reduced lunch numbers.
Jay Mathews compiles the list for the Washington Post. He states
the significance of Advanced Placement courses that is shared by the Grain
Valley School District: “AP, IB and AICE are important because they give
average students a chance to experience… heavy college reading list and long,
analytical college examinations.
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.”
This honor is the third national recognition for Grain
Valley Schools in the past nine months.
Newsweek and U.S. News and World Report have also recognized Grain
Valley High School as a top U.S. high school for preparing students for
college.
Please check out http://apps.washingtonpost.com/local/highschoolchallenge/
for the full list of rankings and additional articles.
