City High has made it onto the Washington Post’s list of just over 2,000 of the most challenging high schools, public and private, in the nation. In order to qualify for this list, a high school must score above a one on the Washington Post’s scoring system, which involves taking the number of AP tests distributed divided by the number of graduating seniors.

“I’m extremely proud of this honor,” said Principal John Bacon. “It’s a great credit to our students, and to our faculty for what has been a significant effort to build a robust advanced placement and honors program…I’m really proud of the students for stepping up and taking advantage of theses opportunities.”

City High has applied for this title before, but failed to give enough AP tests to qualify. In the past few years, however, City has worked to expand the AP and honors program, and has distributed enough tests to qualify for the list. According to Principal Bacon, City has distributed over 500 AP tests this year, and offers more than 20 AP classes.

“I feel like [City] offers a lot of AP classes and students can tailor their academic plans and challenge themselves more,” said Nova Meurice ‘17. “And that’s really nice.”

City High is the only school in Iowa to have qualified for the list.

“I’m excited because sometimes our school gets a bad reputation around town,” said Meurice. “Reputedly we lag behind West but it’s nice that we’re being recognized for the work that we’ve achieved, especially in the last few years.”