Roosevelt Recognized as One of Nation’s Top College-Prep High Schools

Roosevelt High School continues to rank as one of the top schools in Iowa when it comes to preparing students for post-secondary education, according to the list of America’s Most Challenging High Schools released this week by the Washington Post.

Roosevelt is one of only seven high schools in Iowa included in the ranking. Of the 22,000 high schools in the United States, only 9% – or 1,934 – are eligible for the Post’s listing.

The Post began the index in 1998 as a way to measure how well high schools in the Washington, DC-area were preparing students for college. Starting in 2011, the newspaper looked at schools across the nation. The Post ranks high schools by dividing the number of Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate tests given in 2012 by the number of graduating seniors. The Post notes that the index is not meant to rank the overall quality of a school but to look at the effort to prepare students for college.

Roosevelt has been on the Post’s national list since it was created three years ago. Roosevelt’s score this year of 1.992 is up from last year’s mark of 1.698.

The Iowa high schools, and their score on the Washington Post Index, were: 

Des Moines Public Schools is in the process of expanding Advanced Placement course offerings throughout all high schools in the district. Between 2011 and 2012, the number of AP exams given to DMPS high school students increased more than 80%.

For more information on the Washington Post High School Challenge Index, visit http://apps.washingtonpost.com/highschoolchallenge/.