Barrington High School has been named one of America’s most challenging high schools for the 2016-2017 school year by The Washington Post.

Barrington High School is ranked 678th out of 2,369 schools all across the country. Barrington cut its rank almost in half, moving up from 1,245th in 2015-2016.

The Washington Post determines the rankings by taking the number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, and Cambridge tests given each year, and divides by the number of seniors that graduated at each school. 

Any school that receives a ratio of at least 1.00 gets placed on the list. Only 12 percent of public U.S. high schools are on the list. 

Barrington High School’s ratio for 2017 is 3.098 meaning that about three times the number of tests were taken than there were graduating seniors from the school. 

Another statistic that is shown to go along with the ranking is the equity and excellence percentage. Equity and excellence is the percentage of graduates from the school who passed at least one college level test, AP, IB or Cambridge, during their high school career. 

According to the Washington Post, Barrington High School’s equity and excellence percentage for 2017 is 64 percent. Barrington High also has an average SAT score of 1,182 and an average ACT score of 26 and offers 17 AP courses. 

In 2016 the U.S. News and World Report ranked Barrington High School as the number two school in Rhode Island and number 400 in the nation. According to the Washington Post, Barrington High School has a four-year graduation rate of 96 percent with 84 percent of graduates attending a four-year college. 

The only other high school in Rhode Island that made the Washington Post list was Classical High School in Providence. Classical is ranked at 253 with a ratio of 4.610 and an equity and excellence percentage of 57.4.