Collage by Andrea D’Aquino
Founded as a neighborhood school in 1895, Walnut Hills High School embraced its current iteration as an elite college-preparatory institution in 1918. While the school has long been regarded as one of the most competitive in Cincinnati, this year its high college readiness index—a marker determined by proportion of 12th graders who took and passed at least one Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) exam—warrants further attention.
Walnut Hills ranked No. 2 in Ohio for college readiness with an index of 83.4 (barely behind the No. 1 spot at 83.5). It’s followed by other regional schools like Indian Hill High School, ranking No. 4 at 73.7, and Madeira High School, ranking No. 6 at 71.1.
Among the top 10 public schools across Ohio, the average college readiness index is just 67.4. What’s remarkable is that Walnut Hills’s enrollment (1,847 students) is significantly higher than those other area schools. In theory, a larger student population would make it more challenging to achieve high college readiness scores.
So, how is Walnut Hills pulling this off? The school requires students to achieve a qualifying score via the Walnut Hills Entrance Exam (a.k.a. Iowa Assessment) to gain admission. Naturally, students with already high-performing academic abilities are more likely to take and pass the AP tests that determine the college readiness index.
Behind the strictly statistical index numbers of college readiness scores, it appears there is an infrastructure required to help Walnut Hills students achieve AP success, including high expectations, wide availability of AP courses, and substantial faculty support. “We have a standard here,” says principal John Chambers. “We refuse to compromise. We find that students will rise to the occasion to meet the standard.”
Recent graduate Lilly Evans says the workload of her high school experience prepared her for college. Last spring, Evans—a third-generation Walnut Hills graduate and former senior class president—completed her freshman year at the University of Kentucky, where she studies nursing. Her course load is “a lot different” than what she experienced at Walnut Hills—but in a good way. While she admits the heavy homework was “annoying” at the time, in hindsight, she is grateful for the advanced preparation.
The school’s diversity, too, played a role in Evans’s college-prep experience, creating an environment where “all your friends were just from everywhere,” she says.
With diversity of race and economic status also comes a diversity of thought. “It brings so much richness and enhances conversations,” says assistant principal Ashley Morgan.
Perhaps the highest determining factor for the high college readiness index is the vast offering of AP courses, more than any other school in the nation, public or private. The school offers every course available by the AP College Board, 38, and includes popular courses such as AP United States History and AP Human Geography.
At Walnut Hills, 92 percent of students participate in AP courses and 80 percent pass at least one AP exam. Morgan notes that AP courses often begin during a student’s sophomore year and are “the norm” for a student’s schedule.
The Walnut Hills experience is intense, but also highly supported. The faculty has a heightened awareness of the expectations and are mindful of helping students manage the mental load.
“It’s a balance between having those high expectations but not being overwhelming,” Chambers says.
Though most students enter Walnut Hills with the goal of attending a four-year college after graduation, guidance counselors educate students about other post-graduate options. Students take surveys to help define their goals so that their ensuing course design can complement their interests and objectives.
Extracurricular programming is abundant and fluid to meet the ever-changing interests of the student body, currently comprising 90 competitive sports teams and approximately 50 extracurriculars.
Above all, Morgan says, the Walnut Hills administration is passionate about creating “lifelong learners” who are equipped to think critically about the world and apply high-level thinking. An active alumni network is an invaluable cog in that model, as are the concepts of legacy and giving back to their alma mater, which are instilled early and regularly in students. “It’s a big circle of giving,” says Morgan.
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