Oak Mountain ranked nationally as a challenging school

Oak Mountain High School has been named one of America’s Most Challenging High Schools by The Washington Post.

Only seven high schools in Alabama were ranked, and Oak Mountain was ranked fourth in the state, right behind Jefferson County International Baccalaureate, Loveless Academic Magnet Program and Mountain Brook.

America's Most Challenging High Schools is a comprehensive look at public high schools across the nation and each school's level of commitment to offering challenging college-level course work to all students. This year, just 9 percent of the approximately 22,000 U.S. public high schools reached that standard and earned placement on the list.

To determine the ranking, The Washington Post compiled the list based on the number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate or Advanced International Certificate of Education tests given at a school each year, divided by the number of seniors who graduated that year.