The Washington Post released its annual list of America’s Most Challenging High Schools in the United States. The Shoreham-Wading River School District is pleased to announce that with this year’s results, Shoreham-Wading River High School is ranked 194th in the Northeast, 90th in New York State and 13th in Suffolk County.

“It is gratifying to learn that the efforts of students, parents, teachers, administrators and support staff districtwide to improve learning for all students are bearing fruit,” said Superintendent of Schools Dr. Steven Cohen. “We believe we know a bit about how to create a dynamic and engaging learning environment, but it is always good to learn that what we believe is true is actually the case!”

In order to calculate an index score for each school, researchers take the total number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and Advanced International Certificate of Education tests given at a school each year and divide it by the number of seniors who graduated in May or June.

Public schools that achieved a ratio of at least 1.00, meaning they had as many tests in 2013 as they had graduates, were put on the national list. Schools are ranked in order of ratio. Only 9 percent of the approximately 22,000 U.S. public high schools managed to reach the standard and earn placement on the list.