Decorah High School ranked 8th in Iowa

Decorah High School is one of the top ten high schools in the state of Iowa.

So says the Washington Post in its latest survey of the top high schools in the country.  Since 1998 the newspaper's Jay Mathews has ranked Washington-area public high schools using the Challenge Index, his measure of how effectively a school prepares its students for college.  In 2011, the Post expanded its research to high schools across the United States.

The formula is simple: Divide the number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate or other college-level tests a school gave in 2010 by the number of graduating seniors. While not a measure of the overall quality of the school, the rating can reveal the level of a high school's commitment to preparing average students for college.

Of the 30,000 high schools in the United States, 1,900 high schools made the newspaper's list.  Decorah High School just made the list--it was 1,898th nationally.

More about the Washington Post's ratings can be found at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/class-struggle/post/catching-up-on-national-high-school-ranks/2011/05/25/AGkXoXBH_blog.html