By Fallan Patterson
Staff Writer

The Osceola County School for the Arts earned a top spot in the Washington Post’s ranking of the best high schools in the country.

Out of 1,910 high schools, which equals to just 7 percent of all high schools in the country, the School for the Arts was ranked 249, a dramatic jump from its spot at 768 last year.

“We’re trying to identify students who have a passion for the arts,” School Principal Charles Mytron Lisby said. “We promise to tie that passion to the arts to high levels of academics.”

The High School Challenge, the new name for the former Newsweek magazine ranking system, is calculated by Jay Mathews of the Post who compares the number of advanced placement and international baccalaureate exams taken by all students divided by the number of graduating students from each high school.

The result is called a Challenge Index, and those schools with an index at or above a 1.0 were selected and identified as America’s Top Public High Schools. This year, the School for the Arts’ index was 3.238.

Districtwide, Osceola County high schools are encouraging more students to attempt advanced placement or international baccalaureate classes.

“This is broader than just our school; it is the whole district,” Lisby said. “Let’s encourage as many students as possible to take those classes and exams.”

If the advanced placement exam is passed, the student earns college credit; a perk Lisby said parents and students cannot ignore in this economy.

“It’s a financial opportunity for parents,” Lisby said of the classes and exams, which are offered to students at no cost. “It’s a pretty good package as a whole.”

In 2009, the school had 250 students who took an advanced placement exam; in 2010 that number jumped to 327, resulting in the rise on the High School Challenge.

In 2011, after increasing the advanced placement class offerings to include such subjects as microeconomics and drawing, the school now boasts 500 students who have taken such an exam. As of May 27, the school had 719 students enrolled, according to Martha Mann, spokesperson for the Osceola County School District.

Some classes are only offered as advanced placement to encourage students to challenge themselves and Lisby said she anticipates the increase in college-level courses will escalate the school’s ranking in next year’s challenge.

To ensure the school stays competitive and offers challenging courses to students, school staff is requiring all freshmen next year to take advanced placement human geography, a study of world cultures.

Lisby said the idea behind the move is the freshmen, as they continue their high school careers, will be more likely to sign up for additional advanced placement courses. This will boost the school’s grade under the state’s new grading formula as well as any other rankings.

“Students talk to students and they understand the importance of rigor,” Lisby said. “We owe it to the kids to offer that kind of opportunity.”

Additionally, in four years, the school will able to claim all of its students have taken at least one advanced placement class.

Superintendent Terry Andrews expressed his pleasure at the school’s staff, students and parents for their “tireless work” at earning this achievement and said he hopes other high schools look to them as an example.

“This school continues to serve as a model within our own school district and across the nation of how a focused and rigorous academic curriculum helps students achieve at the highest levels,” Andrews said.