Palatine High Schools Rank as Toughest in Illinois

Does your teenager complain about classes and homework at Fremd or Palatine high schools? He or she might be justified in griping.

According to annual rankings created by the Washington Post, both high schools are among the most challenging public high schools in the country. Fremd High School ranked as the 17th toughest school in Illinois while Palatine High School ranked as the 42nd toughest school in the state. 

Fremd moved up five spots from last year, when it ranked as the 22nd toughest school in Illinois, and Palatine High School has seen a substantial jump in recent years in its ranking. In 2012, the school ranked as the 52nd toughest school in the state while in 2011, Palatine High School ranked as the 60th toughest school. 

Washington Post columnist Jay Mathews has rated public high schools around the country for the past 15 years based on something called the “Challenge Index,” according to the release.

The index takes the total number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and Advanced International Certificate of Education tests given at the school next year and divides it by the number of seniors who graduated in May or June. 

“With a few exceptions, public schools that achieved a ratio of at least 1.000, meaning they had as many tests in 2012 as they had graduates, were put on the national list at washingtonpost.com/highschoolchallenge,” Mathews explains in a Washington Post story. Before posting the list, he also filters out magnet or charter high schools that have few average-performing students.

This year, only 9 percent of the approximately 22,000 U.S. public high schools were included on the list, according to Mathews.