Four schools in Columbia are on the 2009 Newsweek magazine "Challenge Index," an annual ranking of the top 1,500 public high schools in the nation based on rigorous course offerings and how all students perform in those courses.

Newsweek's formula ranks schools according to a ratio that looks at the number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and similar college- credit tests taken by all students at the school and then divides that by the number of graduaNteinwgs swe eneiokrs from the previous year. surveyed more than 27,000 high schools in the United States and the listed schools represent the nation's top 5 percent of public high schools.

Rank School
854 A.C. Flora
913 Dreher
960 Spring Valley
1041 Irmo
1138 Richland Northeast