8 Valley high schools listed among nation's top 5 percent

McALLEN - Eight Rio Grande Valley high schools are listed among the top 5 percent of schools in the country, according to the 2008 Newsweek and Washington Post Challenge Index.

The schools are among 1,400 singled out from the 27,000 public schools in the country.

South Texas High School for Health Professions, known as Med High, and The Science Academy of South Texas, known as Sci Tech, both in Mercedes, placed among the top 100 schools in the country for at least the third time, according to those campuses' principals.

This is the second time for Lopez High School, Simon Rivera Jr. High School and Gladys Porter High School, all in Brownsville.

The index measures a public high school's effort to challenge its students. It divides the number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate or Cambridge tests students take by the number of seniors who graduate that year. This year's index is based on 2007 tests and graduation rates, according to The Washington Post.

Newsweek and Post, owned by the same company, have released the index every year for about a decade. Critics of the Challenge Index say the formula the magazine and newspaper use is too narrow.

VALLEY SCHOOL RANKINGS
Rankings of Rio Grande Valley schools named to the 2008 Newsweek and Washington Post Challenge Index.
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44 South Texas High School for Health Professions (Med Hi)
46 Science Academy of South Texas
450 Edinburg High School
592 Valley View High School
909 Edinburg North High School
1172 Lopez High School
1175 Simon Rivera Jr. High School
1275 Porter High School