2015 Most Challenging High Schools list is out.... (Madison, Homewood: college, swimming)

[TN2HSV]

Both James Clemens and Bob Jones are in Alabama's top 10. I believe Madison city is the only school system to have more than 1 school on the list.

Alabama Schools - The Washington Post

[Mathguy]

I was curious because the criteria for these can often be misleading (I saw the thread from the forum highlights list).

I looked up the ratings for my state\area and the reality is that the index didn't mean a whole lot in terms of how challenging the school was but rather how many college-track (and willing to pay for AP testing) students there were.

My kids school for example is around a 1.5 while a few other schools in the area with the same curriculum offerings were more like 3.0. Neither school is more challenging than the other, one just happens to have a lot of hispanic immigrants attending that aren't taking IB and AP classes while the other school is in a more affluent area where a higher % of students are taking AP etc. coursework.

If you have a good student and want them to be challenged, you'll be swimming in AP & IB coursework at either school.

I guess my point is that as long as they have a robust IB\AP program that the Index then just becomes more a factor of the schools socio-economic make-up instead of a measure of how challenging the school is or how well it prepares you.

[guxu]

Originally Posted by TN2HSV

Both James Clemens and Bob Jones are in Alabama's top 10. I believe Madison city is the only school system to have more than 1 school on the list.

Alabama Schools - The Washington Post

Or we can say Madison city is the only school system to have ALL its schools on the list.

[LCTMadison]

Originally Posted by guxu

Or we can say Madison city is the only school system to have ALL its schools on the list.

Nope...Mountain Brook, Homewood and Cullman do. Of course they only each have the one high school but up until a few years ago that is all Madison had.

[guxu]

Originally Posted by LCTMadison

Nope...Mountain Brook, Homewood and Cullman do. Of course they only each have the one high school but up until a few years ago that is all Madison had.

OK. How about "Madison city is the only school system, with 2 or more high schools, to have ALL its schools on the list."?

[ClarkDobber]

Originally Posted by guxu

OK. How about "Madison city is the only school system, with 2 or more high schools, to have ALL its schools on the list."?

Our reason for wanting to settle in Madison!

[Chris J Lumbergh]

Originally Posted by ClarkDobber

Our reason for wanting to settle in Madison!

Welcome to the forum Mr. Dobber! You cant go wrong with Madison in any possible way. I wish you and Mrs Dobber the best.