San Antonio’s first public all-girls campus ranked as a top U.S. high school

By Madalyn Mendoza
Published in My San Antonio on April 21, 2022

One of the top 300 high schools in the U.S. is in San Antonio. SAISD’s Young Women’s Leadership Academy (YWLA) is in the top 1 percent of high schools in the nation with the No. 20 spot in The Challenge Index. 

Formally known as the Jay Mathews Challenge Index, the ranking dates back to 1998. According to the website, it’s the only list that compares private and public schools together. The website explains that The Challenge Index is “designed to recognize schools that challenge average students.” 

The index ranks schools by taking into account the number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate or Cambridge tests administered at the school each year, then divides that total by the number of students who graduated that year. Schools ranked No. 220 or higher are considered “top 1 percent” of the country’s 22,000 high schools. Those ranked No. 440 or higher are in the top 2.