The Washington Post's recently released High School challenge, a list of the nation's most competitive public high schools, includes 25 HISD schools, three of which broke the top 100.

Just 1,905 of the nation's approximately 27,000 public high schools made the criteria for the list, which includes 149 Texas schools.

This is the first year the Post has expanded its ranking of Washington-area public schools to encompass the entire country. To determine the schools' ranking, the Post divided the number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate (IB) or other college-level tests schools gave in 2010 by the number of the school's graduating seniors.

The Post notes that the study is not a measure of the overall quality of the schools listed, but does help measure the schools' effectiveness at preparing average students for a college career.

Carnegie Vanguard High School ranked highest among the Texas and Houston-area schools at No. 13. Two other Houston-area schools, DeBakey High School for Health Professions (No. 61, up from No. 70 last year) and Eastwood Academy (new to the list at No. 37), broke the top 100.

The remaining Houston-area schools that made the list are Bellaire (No. 127), HSPVA (No. 168), High School for Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice (No. 178), Westside (No. 236,) Lee (No. 283), Furr (No. 375), Challenge Early College (No. 478), Westbury (No. 565), Chavez (No. 627), Sharpstown (No. 769), Lamar (No. 916), Austin (No. 1,008), Watrip (No. 1,193), Empowerment College Prep (No. 1,224), Houston Academy of International Studies (No. 1,231), Milby (No. 1,239), Reagan (No. 1,253), Davis (No. 1,278), Mt. Carmel Academy (No. 1,360), Sam Houston Math, Science and Technology Center (No. 1,367), East Early College (No. 1,444) and Scarborough (No. 1,654).

(We're obligated to note that Dallas schools claim the top two spots.)

Data for the study was gathered from the 2009/2010 school year.