Century makes list of most-challenging high schools
The Washington Post has named its most-challenging schools for 2015.
Only seven Idaho schools made the list and one of those is Century High School in Pocatello.
Schools that meet the criteria have to apply for the list. The criteria are determined by a pretty complex formula.
School administrators said this is a goal of theirs every year and so far, they’ve been successful.
Century has made the Post’s list of most-challenging schools since 2006. To determine what schools rank, the Post uses a specific formula.
That formula is the number of advanced placement courses and tests offered, the number of international baccalaureate tests and the number of Advanced International Education Certification tests, divided by the number of graduates each year. Schools have to have a ratio of at least 1.0 to make the list. Century’s ratio for 2015 was 1.279.
“That means that every graduate at Century High School is completing an average of 1.27 advanced placement courses or tests,” said Scott Tyson, chairman of the counseling department at Century.
Century doesn’t offer baccalaureate or education certification tests, they only offer AP courses and tests. So their ratio is based solely on that, making their formula only the number of AP courses divided by the number of graduates.
Tyson said it has so many AP courses because that’s what their students want.
“We offered a few AP courses, the students filled those and asked for more,” he said. “We offered more and the students filled those and asked for more again.”
Tyson said it looks good for the school and the community that a high school is performing so well.
“From my perspective, it’s really nice to have somebody from outside of Idaho step up and say ‘this is my criteria for developing a great school’ and we meet that criteria,” Tyson said. “It’s nice to have somebody in the heart of the nation saying this is a great high school.”
The Post also posted some other important statistics about Century in its report. The report shows Century has a graduation rate of 98 percent. It also shows that 73 percent of those grads go on to a college education. So overall, Century said it has a lot to be proud of.
Century is the only school in the Southeast region to make the list. The other Idaho schools on the list were Coeur d’Alene Charter Academy, Boise High School, North Star Charter, Timberline High School, Borah High School and Capital High School.
