Woodford County High School ranked as the 7th best high school in Kentucky, according to U. S. News's annual rankings of 21,000 public high schools in the United States. WCHS was awarded a silver medal based on its performance on the state assessment, graduation rates and how prepared students are for college. "It's nice to get some recognition for the hard work that I feel like our staff's doing with our kids," said WCHS Principal Rob Akers. "And it shows what a good, comprehensive high school we are." In The Washington Post's rankings of America's Most Challenging High Schools, WCHS ranked 8th among public high schools in Kentucky. Those rankings are based on an index formula of how many graduating seniors had taken advanced tests. "So we got two pretty good nods from different publishing companies using different measurements," Akers said. He said both rankings show that WCHS has continued doing a good job of challenging its high-performing students. The next challenge for WCHS will be engaging all students to reach their potential – getting more of them to buy into the relevance and a value of an education, Akers said. Besides having a phenomenal faculty, he said, "We come from a community that really values education." He said parents are supportive of Woodford County High School's rigor, and teachers are inspiring their students to reach their full potential. "We have high expectations across-the-board – whether it's behavior or academics," explained Akers. "And I think that those two things go hand-in-hand."