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Lowell High named among nation’s best
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SAN FRANCISCO (Map, News) - Nine high schools in San Francisco and San Mateo County made the grade for Newsweek magazine’s 2008 list of top public high schools in America.
Schools ranked high if they had a high percentage of students who take advanced placement, international baccalaureate and Cambridge tests, according to a statement from Newsweek.
In San Francisco, top honors went to Lowell High School, which ranked 54th in the nation on the list of 1,355.
“I’m very proud of the accomplishments at Lowell,” Principal Andrew Ishibashi said. “We have a large special-education program, and a large number of students on free and reduced lunch, which makes us more of a regular school,” Ishibashi said.
In San Mateo County, five schools in the San Mateo Union High School District made the list — Burlingame, Mills, San Mateo, Aragon and Hillsdale.
Two schools in the Sequoia High School District — Menlo-Atherton and Sequoia — also made the list, which will be published in the magazine’s May 26 edition.
The top score went to BASIS, a charter school in Tucson, Ariz.
Such recognition is important, but should be only one of several criteria parents use when choosing a school for their teen, according to David Miller, superintendent of SMUSHD. Academic offerings, as well as whether a student has special needs, should also be part of the equation, he said.
“You can look at test scores, or talk to people, but you really should visit,” Miller said. “When I go to Mills, for example, I get a sense of how safe and caring it is, including the students — we’ve got great kids in this district.”
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2:20 PM MST on Fri., Jul. 25, 2008 re: "Lottery for school assignment comes under fire"
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7:37 AM MST on Thu., Jun. 26, 2008
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11:17 AM MST on Tue., May. 20, 2008
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miyoko said:
I just recieved a letter from SFUSD that they made an error and need to re assign my child to different school. This is only one month left before school starts. So outrageous. We already got involved with the school that we thought our daughe was going to. We met principle, teachers and all the parents and kids that involves in school. We paid non refundable tuition for afterschool program that the bus goes from there. We are sooo upset about SFUSD unproffesionalizm and poor organization skill. It is a big change for kids to attend a new school. We visited the school many times and organized play dates with new comers. We made a difficult decision picking a right afterschool program that bus goes to. Finally we are feeling comfortable for our child to start a new life at this new school. I hope that we can raise our voice.
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Examiner Reader said:
I think the writer may have missed a more interesting angle. According to the public data from the California Department of Education, San Francisco’s public high schools continue to be an entry point to the public school system rather than an exit point. To illustrate this point, here is the SFUSD’s enrollment data for the past several years, taken from the CDE website (www.cde.ca.gov): 2007-2008: 5,529 9th graders 2006-07: 6,030 9th graders and 3,982 8th graders 2005-06: 6,050 9th and 4,273 8th 2004-05: 5,438 9th and 4,196 8th Comparing any given year’s 8th grade SFUSD enrollment to the following year’s 9th grade SFUSD enrollment, it becomes clear than several hundred students ENTER the public school system for high school, presumably from private or parochial middle schools. The fact that, for each of the last three years, over 1,500 students ENTERED the SFUSD for 9th grade is a very significant and positive message about the quality of the public high schools
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Neighborhood Schools = Segregation said:
Odd that a city that prides itself on progressivism and projects itself as a paragon of diversity is so severely Balkanized. Calls emanating from some communities demanding "neighborhood schools" are thinly-veiled appeals for ethnic and class segregation. I attended hearings at the SFUSD a few years back and was shocked when some Chinese-American parents (frequently thru interpreters) insisted that they did not want their kids, described as model scholars who respected their parents and teachers and were hungry to learn, to study alongside black and Latino/Chicano children, characterized as brutal thugs with a profound aversion to discipline and education. I was shocked by their ignorance and racism, but perhaps not terribly surprised. Such scenarios once more expose San Francisco as a provincial little town rife with racialized tensions, despite its veneer of sophistication, urbanism and tolerance.
4 agree | 7 disagree
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Neighborhood Schools = Segregation said:
Odd that a city that prides itself on progressivism and projects itself as a paragon of diversity is so severely Balkanized. Calls emanating from some communities demanding "neighborhood schools" are thinly-veiled appeals for ethnic and class segregation. I attended hearings at the SFUSD a few years back and was shocked when some Chinese-American parents (frequently thru interpreters) insisted that they did not want their kids, described as model scholars who respected their parents and teachers and were hungry to learn, to study alongside black and Latino/Chicano children, characterized as brutal thugs with a profound aversion to discipline and education. I was shocked by their ignorance and racism, but perhaps not terribly surprised. Such scenarios once more expose San Francisco as a provincial little town rife with racialized tensions, despite its veneer of sophistication, urbanism and tolerance.
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Examiner Reader said:
The lottery system is not the answer. Maybe instead of busing children in order to integrate schools, we could reapply the $7 million saved to improve the low performing schools. ($5 million busing + $2 million staffing). Both my children were in the 37% that did not get into their first choice for school. That makes me less inclined to contribute any money to their school's requests for donations of $250 - $500/year.
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Examiner Reader said:
Lowell has always been the best high school the City has to offer. It's too bad the Stupid Board of Education looks at Lowell as the ugly step sister (e.g., no funding for improvements, always trying to canabalize the admission process, trying to fix things that aren't broken etc.).
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