Perry Hall HS Ranks in Top 9 Percent of Most Challenging High Schools

It's a point of pride for administrators, faculty and parents. Yet it's the cause of many late hours spent studying for students.

Perry Hall High School ranks in the top 9 percent of schools in the United States when it comes to academic rigor, according to The Washington Post's annual Challenge List.

View The Post's Challenge List in full here.

Perry Hall ranks among the the nation's top 1,900 high schools out of 22,000.

The rankings are measured by the number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, or Cambridge tests taken divided by the number of graduating seniors.

Perry Hall ranks 83rd in the state of Maryland and No. 1,420 nationally, according to the Maryland list.

“It wasn’t until these students came [back in 2010] that every single year, we were recognized nationally,” Principal George Roberts said to an auditorium of graduating seniors at an awards ceremony Thursday evening. 

“You’ve shifted the course of Perry Hall High School ... a course for greatness,” he said. 

Thirteen Baltimore County public high schools made the list, according to a release from the schools system. Towson High School ranked highest on the list of Baltimore County schools at 21 and 415, in the state and country, respectively.

“I am extraordinarily proud that every high school in the Fifth District made this list, but especially my alma mater, Perry Hall High School," Councilman David Marks, a graduate of the Class of 1991, said. "It continues to excel in so many areas and be a source of pride for the community.”

BCPS Superintendent S. Dallas Dance issued a statement in which he expressed pride for the schools that made the list, but ultimately, he said he knows the schools can do better.

"We must have every school capable of providing students not just with a diploma but with the 21^st-century skills and knowledge they will need to become successful as citizens of the world," Dance said. "We have some great high schools, but we cannot be satisfied with just having some.” 

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