Kennedy has been ranked as the 610th high school out of 22,000 on the Washington Post’s “Most Challenging High Schools” List.

This ranking places Kennedy in the top three percent nationwide. Some other Iowa schools that have also made the list include Iowa City High School, Decorah High School, Ames High School, and Des Moines Roosevelt High School.

The Washington Post uses an index formula and ratio in order to figure out school’s rankings on the list.

The index formula and ratio look at the number of advanced placement, international baccalaureate and advanced international certificate of education tests given at a school each year, and all of that is divided by the number of seniors who graduated that year.

Another factor that contributes to the ranking of the school is the equity and excellence rate. That looks at all the graduating seniors, those who have never taken an AP class, seniors who scored three or above on one of their AP tests.

A list of all the rankings and information can be found here http://apps.washingtonpost.com/local/highschoolchallenge/.