According to
the most recent education statistics, there were 23,436 public high schools in
the
In its most
recent issue (January, 2010), U.S. News & World Report announced its third annual
ranking of America's Best High
Schools and U-Prep was named a Silver Medal winner, one of only 90 schools
in the state of California that were awarded this prestigious honor. What
is a
The
methodology used by the U.S News & World Report in selecting America’s best high schools
was developed by School Evaluation Services, a K-12 education data
research business run by Standard & Poor’s, who also compiled the report.
The cornerstone of the methodology is the belief, according to U.S. News
& World Report, that “a great
high school must serve all its students well, not just those who are college
bound, and that it must be able to produce measurable academic outcomes to show
the school is successfully educating its student body across a range of
performance indicators”
(P. 77, January 2010).
In
total, 21,786 public high schools across the nation were analyzed for this
evaluation. “This is the total number of public high schools that had 12th-grade
enrollment and sufficient data, primarily from the 2007-2008 school year, to
analyze” (P. 77, January 2010),
according to the report.
All schools making the best high schools list were determined by a three-step selection process.
Step 1) how schools educate all of their students;
Step 2) how schools educate their minority and disadvantaged students; and
Step 3) how schools educate their college-bound students
The
first two steps were designed to measure to what extent the schools serve all
their students well by using state proficiency benchmarks. If a school scored
sufficiently well on the first two steps, then the third step was used to assess
how well a school prepared its students for college-level work.
The
first step ascertained whether a school’s students were performing better than
statistically expected for the average student in the state. Specifically, the
analysts examined math and reading scores for all students on state-based tests.
Then they factored in the percentage of economically disadvantaged students
enrolled at the school, who tend to score lower on standardized tests. In this
way, they were able to identify schools that were performing better than
statistical expectations.
Schools
that were identified as better performing by step one were then analyzed under
step two, which determined whether the school’s least-advantaged students,
identified by U.S. News & World Report as black, Hispanic and low
income, were performing better than average for similar students in the state.
This was accomplished by comparing the math and reading scores for disadvantaged
students with the statewide results for these groups. Again, schools that
produced students who were performing better than the state average were
identified to move on to step three.
Only those schools that made it past the first two steps were
ranked in the third step using College Readiness Index (CRI) to assess the
degree to which schools prepare students for college-level work. CRI is
calculated based not only on the school's Advanced Placement (AP) or
International Baccalaureate (IB) (whichever
program is prevalent at the school) participation rate (the
number of seniors who took at least one AP or IB test before or during their
senior year, divided by the total number of seniors), but also on how well the
students did on those tests (the number of 12th-graders who took and passed
(received an AP score of 3 or higher or an IB score of 4 or higher) at least one
of the tests before or during their senior year, divided by the total number of
seniors at that school). To
determine the school’s college readiness index, the participation rate was
weighted 25% and the quality-adjusted participation rate was weighted 75%.
Schools that scored above 20 on the college readiness index were awarded silver
and gold medals.
The
top 100 schools that had the highest CRI were named gold medal schools. The rest
of the schools that had a CRI of at least 20 were awarded silver medals. Schools
that had a CRI of less than 20 were awarded bronze medals. A school that would
have scored high enough to get a gold medal based on its CRI, but that did not
meet the threshold requirements of the first two steps, received an honorable
mention medal.
It can be discerned that the first two steps compared schools within each state using state proficiency standards as the benchmarks. The third step ranked the schools nationwide, using CRI which is independent of the delimiting characteristics of schools imposed by the state where the school is located, and thus can be compared across states for the purpose of ranking schools nationwide.
In this America’s Best High Schools evaluation, of the 21,786 public schools analyzed, a total of 1,750 schools were recognized, with 100 receiving Gold Medals, 461 awarded Silver Medals and 1,189 named as Bronze Medal winners. An additional 37 were given Honorable Mention. In other words, 561 (gold and silver medal) schools were found to be doing an excellent job of educating all students as well as preparing students for college-level coursework. California (with 110 high schools) led the ranking of number of schools earning Gold or Silver Medals in a single state, followed by New York (53), Texas (50) and Illinois (37), as can be seen in Table 1.
Table 1: America’s Best High Schools by State (Top 10)
|
State
|
Number
of |
Number
eligible |
Silver |
Silver
or gold |
Gold
| |
|
1 |
|
193 |
143 |
12 |
6.20% |
0 |
|
2 |
|
345 |
253 |
21 |
6.10% |
2 |
|
3 |
California
|
1839 |
893 |
110 |
6.00% |
20 |
|
4 |
|
397 |
299 |
23 |
5.80% |
5 |
|
5 |
|
1041 |
676 |
53 |
5.10% |
23 |
|
6 |
|
742 |
296 |
37 |
5.00% |
3 |
|
7 |
|
63 |
39 |
3 |
4.80% |
0 |
|
8 |
|
453 |
211 |
21 |
4.60% |
4 |
|
9 |
|
115 |
77 |
5 |
4.30% |
1 |
|
9 |
|
231 |
173 |
10 |
4.30% |
0 |
The top 100 high schools
nationwide with the highest CRI scores were awarded gold medals. The CRI of the
top 100 gold medal schools ranges between 100 (highest) and 63 (lowest). There
are 26 states that have at least one school awarded gold medal school. The top
10 states that have gold medal schools are listed in Table 2.
Table
2: Distribution of Gold Medal Schools by State
(Top 10)
|
Rank |
State |
Number
of High Schools |
Gold |
Gold
(% of total) |
|
1 |
|
1041 |
23 |
2.20% |
|
2 |
|
608 |
10 |
1.60% |
|
3 |
|
397 |
5 |
1.30% |
|
4 |
|
1839 |
20 |
1.10% |
|
5 |
|
453 |
4 |
0.90% |
|
6 |
|
1425 |
11 |
0.80% |
|
7 |
|
345 |
2 |
0.60% |
|
7 |
|
320 |
2 |
0.60% |
|
9 |
|
440 |
2 |
0.50% |
|
10 |
|
742 |
3 |
0.40% |
Table 3: Gold Medal Schools in
California
|
National
Ranking |
Name |
College
Readiness Index (CRI) |
County |
Region |
|
3 |
|
100 |
|
|
|
4 |
|
100 |
|
|
|
7 |
Pacific
Collegiate School |
100 |
|
Bay
Area |
|
22 |
|
92.1 |
|
|
|
23 |
|
91.6 |
|
|
|
25 |
Lennox
Mathematics, Science & |
90.5 |
|
|
|
28 |
|
89.6 |
|
Bay
Area |
|
32 |
The
Preuss School UCSD |
86.2 |
|
Southern
Border |
|
36 |
|
85 |
|
Bay
Area |
|
44 |
School
of |
79.2 |
|
Southern
Border |
|
54 |
|
76.3 |
|
|
|
67 |
|
71.5 |
|
Bay
Area |
|
70 |
|
70.6 |
|
Bay
Area |
|
73 |
|
70.2 |
|
Bay
Area |
|
80 |
La
|
67.9 |
|
|
|
83 |
|
67 |
|
Bay
Area |
|
86 |
|
66.4 |
|
Bay
Area |
|
89 |
|
65.4 |
|
Bay
Area |
|
93 |
|
64.4 |
|
Bay
Area |
|
98 |
|
63.3 |
|
Bay
Area |
It can be seen from Table 3
that gold medal schools in
The next 461 top-performing high schools nationwide that had CRI of at least 20 earned silver medals. Forty-five states enjoy at least one silver medal school. California, which was awarded 90 silver medal schools, is among the top three states that enjoy the highest proportion of silver medal schools in the nation. The top 10 states that have the highest ratio of silver medal schools are listed in Table 4.
Table 4: Distribution of Silver Medal Schools by
State (Top 10)
|
Rank
|
State
|
Number
of |
Silver |
Silver |
|
1 |
|
193 |
12 |
6.22% |
|
2 |
|
345 |
19 |
5.51% |
|
3 |
|
1839 |
90 |
4.89% |
|
4 |
|
63 |
3 |
4.76% |
|
5 |
|
742 |
34 |
4.58% |
|
6 |
|
397 |
18 |
4.53% |
|
7 |
|
231 |
10 |
4.33% |
|
8 |
|
78 |
3 |
3.85% |
|
9 |
|
453 |
17 |
3.75% |
|
10 |
|
54 |
2 |
3.70% |
Table 5: Top
10 Silver Medal Schools in
|
Ranking
|
SCHOOLS |
College
Readiness Index (CRI) |
COUNTY |
| |
|
5 |
|
61.9 |
|
| |
|
7 |
|
61.8 |
|
| |
|
11 |
|
60.8 |
|
| |
|
12 |
|
60.6 |
|
| |
|
13 |
|
60.4 |
|
| |
|
16 |
|
60 |
|
| |
|
17 |
|
59.7 |
|
| |
|
20 |
|
59.4 |
|
| |
|
24 |
|
58.4 |
|
| |
|
27 |
|
58.1
|
| ||
Table 5 shows that of the top 10 silver medal schools in California, 9 are again from regions of Southern California or Bay Area. U-Prep is the only school that is from outside of these two regions. In other words, U-Prep is ranked No. 1 school (having the highest CRI) among all the schools outside regions of Southern California and Bay Area.
All gold and silver medal schools in California can be found in the Map of Gold & Silver Medal Schools in California.
This is the first time U-Prep
has entered the ranking of
The following are some of the conclusions inferred from the ranking of America’s Best High Schools 2010 conducted by U.S. News & World Report.
University Preparatory Schools is one of America’s Best High Schools, according to the ranking methodology by US News & World Report. A young school with a community of excellence, U-Prep community members (students, staff and parents) are all committed to high levels of achievement and have been working hard to attain them. This Silver Medal distinction from US News & World Report is one more exciting affirmation of efforts and accomplishments on the part of the U-Prep community. Cherishing this honor as a shining milestone of U-Prep’s journey to academic excellence, University Preparatory School community will work together to continue our mission to “offer students learning experiences needed to achieve their leadership and academic potential, to become creative thinkers, compassionate human beings and ethical participants in a multi-cultural, democratic society” (U-Prep Mission Statement).