Newsweek's list of the nation's top 1,500 schools includes 12 schools in the San Diego Unified School District.
The ratio used to rank public schools was developed by Jay Matthews. It consists of the number of International Baccalaureate, Advanced Placement, and/or Cambridge tests taken by the students at each school in 2008 divided by the number of students who graduated from that school in 2008.
Newsweek's 2009 list includes the following SDUSD high schools
- #10 Preuss UCSD
- #60 San Diego High School for International Studies
- #243 La Jolla
- #298 University City
- #305 Serra
- #345 Mira Mesa
- # 411 Scripps Ranch
- #486 Henry
- #513 Point Loma
- #587 San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts
- # 1,215 Clairemont
- #1,311 Madison
Schools like the Preuss charter school may have an advantage in this particular calculation since all of their students are required to take these tests, but the school must also face criticism since it has a lower passing rate than schools where taking these tests is not required.
One fact I am compelled to point out is that almost all of these schools are in affluent areas, which means that most of the students attending these schools are already advantaged. The exceptions are the Preuss School and the San Diego High School of International Studies which are programs aimed at preparing economically disadvantaged students for college, and the San Diego School for Creative and Performing Arts which is not an affluent school, but is simply in a league of it's own both in the quality of its programs and the caliber of its students.
I would love to see an effort on the part of the district to duplicate the successes of these schools at every high school in San Diego Unified.
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