Where Did Your High School Place on 'Most Challenging' List?

and Armwood high schools ranked No. 904 and No. 622, respectively,  on a national list of high schools making the grade in the number of advanced classes offered, according to a Brandon Patch computer-assisted report on the findings of "America's Most Challenging High Schools."

• See chart below for all Hillsborough school rankings.

The list, once known as "America's Best High Schools," first published by Newsweek, ranks American high schools by the number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, and college-level tests administered at a school divided by the number of graduating seniors.

That ranking, now known as "America's Most Challenging High Schools," is published by The Washington Post. This year, for the first time, according to Hillsborough County School District officials, all of the school system's traditional high schools, as well as the Brooks DeBartolo Collegiate Charter High School, made the list.

Hillsborough High School, which has been on the list every year since it was first published except for 2003, ranks this year in the No. 62 spot, according to a release by the Hillsborough County School District. Plant High, on the list every year since 2004, places 57th, the highest ranking for Hillsborough schools. Also placing in the Top 100 were Robinson (67) and Steinbrenner (100).

The list, by reporter Jay Mathews, was first published in 1998. It was not published in 1999, 2001, 2002 or 2004, the school district notes.

The report is based on the number of tests administered at a school, but not the number of students who pass those tests. Some Advanced Placement teachers have complained that in the push to offer more AP classes, students have been enrolled that are not qualified for the advanced instruction. Without the enrollment, the classes could not be offered.

Mathews, in a report on how the high school challenge works, addresses, among other things, why he counts only the number of tests given, and not how well the students do on the tests.

"I decided not to count passing rates in this way because I found that most high schools kept those rates artificially high by allowing only top students to take the courses," he said. "In other instances, they opened the courses to all but encouraged only the best students to take the tests."

A Brandon Patch computer-assisted report on this year's findings shows that 1,932 high schools made the list, with Florida schools accounting for 316 of those schools, or 16 percent of the total.

The chart below shows the rankings of schools in the Hillsborough County School District.

The full report can be found online, including an explanation for how the chart was compiled.

 RANK SCHOOL CITY Equity & Excellence Percentage Lunch Subsidies Percentage INDEX 57 H.B. Plant Tampa 65.6 20 6.064 62 Hillsborough Tampa 74 61 5.956 67 T.R. Robinson Tampa   43 5.76 100 Steinbrenner Lutz 40 17 5 111 C. Leon King Tampa 57 52 4.739 201 Freedom Tampa   45 3.935 223 Walter Sickles Tampa   35 3.767 265 Howard W. Blake Tampa   59 3.511 306 Gaither Tampa 41.2 41 3.309 317 Joe E. Newsome Lithia   16 3.27 356 Bloomingdale Valrico   31 3.116 362 Paul R. Wharton Tampa   42 3.099 378 Plant City Plant City   49 3.045 545 Chamberlain Tampa   63 2.616 588 Brooks DeBartolo Tampa     2.526 590 Riverview Senior Riverview   16 2.518 622 Armwood Tampa     2.46 645 Leto Tampa     2.407 703 Durant Senior Plant City     2.316 716 Braulio Alonso Tampa   45 2.3 814 Spoto Riverview     2.171 904 Brandon Brandon     2.065 967 Tampa Bay Technical Tampa   92 1.995 1039 East Bay Gibsonton   51
1.894 1098 Jefferson       1.838 1299 Strawberry Crest Dover     1.636 1409 Earl J. Lennard Ruskin     1.556