Greater Washington Schools: How do Arlington High Schools Stack Up?

Arlington's high schools ranked among the best in Virginia in this year's Washington Post Challenge Index.

The H.B. Woodlawn Secondary Program ranked No. 1 out of 101 high schools in Virginia this year. Washington-Lee High School ranked third, Yorktown ranked sixth and Wakefield ranked 36th.

Among high schools in the greater Washington area, H.B. Woodlawn ranked fourth, Washington-Lee ranked 10th, Yorktown was 14th and Wakefield was No. 63. 

H.B. Woodlawn was the only Arlington program to crack the top 10 of 1,900 schools in the 2013 Challenge Index nationwide.

[To see the full list, click here.]

Since 1998, the Post has used the Challenge Index to measure how effectively a school prepares its students for college.  

The formula: Divide the number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate or other college-level tests a school offered by the number of graduating seniors.

Also noted are the percentage of students who come from families that qualify for free and reduced lunch, a poverty indicator, and the percentage of graduates who passed at least one college-level test during their high school career.

More than 170 public and private schools and programs are on the Washington region list; 101 Virginia high schools are on the state list, and 1,925 are included nationally. Magnet and charter schools, like the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax County, are not included in the rankings.

The index is not a measure of the overall quality of the school, but the rating can reveal the level at which a school prepares the average student for college, according to the Post.