ROCKVILLE, MD — Many students can skate by in high school with good grades when they choose less challenging courses. But more challenging courses, such as Advanced Placement classes, are what really help teens grow and learn and even earn college credits. With that in mind, the Washington Post recently released its 2017 list of the Most Challenging High Schools in the U.S.

Poolesville High School ranks as number 93 in the and places first among Maryland schools. Five Montgomery County schools ranked in the top 200 nationally: Poolesville, Richard Montgomery, Winston Churchill, Bethesda-Chevy Chase and Walt Whitman high schools. "Providing more students with the chance to take rigorous classes like AP and IB is an important part of our work to prepare students to thrive in their future," said Superintendent Jack Smith. "We have work to do to eliminate barriers and ensure that we are meeting the educational needs of all students."

The list includes 2,323 schools across the country and more than 180 schools in the Washington region. The Washington Post ranks schools through an index formula that's a simple ratio: the number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and Advanced International Certificate of Education tests given at a school each year, divided by the number of seniors who graduated that year, according to the Washington Post. A ratio of 1.000 means the school had as many tests as graduates.



Here is a look at the top 10 most challenging schools in Maryland and their national ranking, according to the Washington Post. You can click here to see all of the schools listed in Maryland and get more information about individual statistics. Poolesville (93) Richard Montgomery in Rockville (118) Churchill in Potomac (129) Bethesda-Chevy Chase (155) Walt Whitman in Bethesda (181) Holton-Arms in Bethesda (239) Quince Orchard in Gaithersburg (250) Wootton in Rockville (253) Chesapeake Science Point in Hanover (261) South River in Edgewater (262)

The Post's "America's Most Challenging High Schools" project was created 30 years ago when reporters discovered a public school in a poor Hispanic neighborhood produced 26 percent of all the successful Mexican-American Advanced Placed calculus students in the country because, according to columnist Jay Matthews, they were "giving students more time and encouragement to learn."

"My focus since then has been to explore how this is done and identify those schools working hardest to challenge students from all backgrounds," Matthews said. "The list shows a sustained increase in the number of schools that qualify…even though the vast majority of U.S. schools still do not make the list."