The Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science, and Technology (GSMST) has been named one of the best schools in the nation by the Jay Mathews Challenge Index. According to the nation’s oldest high school ranking system, GSMST is number 38 on a list of the top 300 high schools nationwide. IV Bray, the principal at GSMST, says it’s an honor to be considered among the best of the best.

“When GSMST is recognized on the national level, it affirms the GCPS courage exhibited almost twenty years ago when our school was envisioned and launched for success,” Bray says. “We have a quote posted along a hallway and in our student handbook that reads ‘Accept the challenge…’ and although we do not arrange our curriculum for the purpose of placing high on ranking publications, the hard work of our students and teachers, and the support of our GSMST families often produces great outcomes. For that, we are proud, and even more thankful that we are able to provide such rich and innovative learning opportunities to students of Gwinnett County.”

The Challenge Index was first released in 1998 in both Newsweek and The Washington Post. It is the only list that does not rely on test scores, which the authors of the Index believe, are more a measure of student family income than school quality. The Challenge Index is also the only list that compares private and public schools. Schools are ranked by the number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate or Cambridge tests given at a school each year, divided by the number of seniors who graduated that year. The list is designed to recognize schools that challenge average students, so magnet or charter schools that have few or no average students are placed on a separate Public Elites list. Schools ranked no. 220 or above are in the top 1 percent of America’s 22,000 high schools, no. 440 or above are in the top 2 percent and so on. The entire index can be reviewed here.