Bexley High School was recently named as one of the nation's best high schools according to the Jay Matthews Challenge Index which was published nationally in the May 28 issue of Newsweek Magazine.

This is the third year in a row the high school has made the list, receiving an index score of 1.634 which placed it at 668 out of a total of 1,200 schools nationwide.

The high school's score is determined by dividing the total number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate or Cambridge tests given by the number of students in that year's graduating class.

"It's a nice result of our efforts to enhance that program and has been a part of our school improvement plan for four years," Bexley High School Principal John Kellogg said.

Kellogg said every year, more and more schools seem to join the program nationwide and rank in the top 1,000 and the difference of being ranked 668 as opposed to 700 is very small.

"What I really wish they would do is lump schools in cohorts," he said.

For example, Kellogg said rather than the index saying a school is ranked 668, it could look at the top percentile of schools instead instead because there is a small difference between a score of 1.634 and a school 50 places ahead.

"For me, it's more about the opportunity we've created for kids, and the way that has impacted our school," Kellogg said.

"It's a very simple but elegant way to examine how schools get more kids to take challenging curriculum," he said.

The index is the creation of journalist Jay Matthews, a Washington Post staff writer, who devised it to measure which schools across the country do the best job of preparing average students for college. The index uses a participating school's rate of participation in college level tests, such as AP tests, to indicate which schools were the most demanding and supportive of all students.

The total number of tests taken each year are then divided by the number of graduating seniors for that school.

According to Matthews, average students are often considered not ready for, or not deserving of, AP courses even though many studies show they need the challenge and that success in AP courses can lead to success in college.

Matthews said research has shown that just taking the course and the test matters more than the score, because even struggling AP students learn a great deal.

Kellogg and his staff have defined AP expansion as one of the high school's goals.

According to school records, more than 90 percent of Bexley students go on to college after graduation, and the efforts of the high school's teaching staff is a big part of preparing them for the coursework.

Since 2004, the high school has required students enrolled in an AP course to take the AP exam.

Total enrollment in AP courses at the high school has continued to increase, with 462 students having enrolled in AP courses for the 2007-08 school year.

Kellogg said they have added AP courses in computer science, chemistry, art history, government and physics in the last couple of years, and will be offering statistics for the first time beginning this fall. He said 45 students are signed up for the statistics course.

"When you look at the numbers of kids we have taking more than one, it's phenomenal," Kellogg said.

"It's no uncommon for us to have a kid taking three, four, and in some cases even five AP courses in a year," he said.

"Our student body, which is a tremendously driven student population, sees the value in the AP class, the value in the experience and even the value in taking the tests, which prepares them for future studies," he said.