Newsweek's OC High School Ranking 2008 (Santa Ana, Anaheim: best schools, university, assessment)

[missionhome]

Newsweek Magazine has released its 2008 ranking of America's top 1,300 high schools in the nation. Here is the formula used to rank the schools: The number of Advanced Placement, Intl. Baccalaureate and/or Cambridge tests taken by all students at a school in 2007 divided by the number of graduating seniors. All of the schools on the list have an index of at least 1.000; they are in the top 5 percent of public schools measured this way.

This is not the same as the Academic Performance Index (API) of a school, but is a good assessment of the advanced programs at a school. This list isn't necessarily in perfect order of what I would consider OC's "best" but it does include most of the best schools in our county at least on the list. It is a decent reference source for parents looking at OC for high school.
**= a high school that had students take AP and IB tests
Rank High School City
28 Troy ** Fullerton (5th highest in California!!)
152 University Irvine
220 Corona del Mar Newport Beach
256 Sunny Hills ** Fullerton
311 Mission Viejo ** Mission Viejo
382 Northwood Irvine
442 Valencia ** Placentia
480 Capistrano Valley ** Mission Viejo
493 Tesoro Rancho Santa Margarita
535 Canyon ** Anaheim
582 San Clemente ** San Clemente
603 Fountain Valley Fountain Valley
613 Laguna Hills ** Laguna Hills
657 Marina Huntington Beach
724 Dana Hills Dana Point
752 Ocean View ** Huntington Beach
753 Laguna Beach Laguna Beach
755 Irvine Irvine
803 Brea Olinda Brea
815 Foothill** Santa Ana
829 Esperanza Anaheim
833 Garden Grove Garden Grove
895 El Modena Orange
912 Huntington Beach Huntington Beach
1089 Trabuco Hills ** Mission Viejo
1211 Tustin Tustin
1234 Edion Huntington Beach
1287 Westiminister Westiminister
1307 Cypress Cypress

America's Top Public High Schools | Newsweek Best High Schools | Newsweek.com

[bhcompy]

Los Alamitos is 1245
Oxford Academy is 9

and its just a list of the number of classes taken last year/number of seniors this year. a bit skewed since schools with a large demand on these courses and limited resources will give upperclassmen priority. i would prefer rankings of average scores by specific test including numbers as to the total # taking that specific test at the school.

[Coldjensens]

Odd. Where are Oxford Academy (Anaheim), OCHSA, and middle college?

[Coldjensens]

I found Oxford it is ranked number 9. OCHSA does not show up at all

[bhcompy]

ochsa is an arts school. they do not have many AP classes for arts and while they do offer traditional AP classes that is not the primary focus of the school. the lists ranking criteria doesnt rank how good the school is, just the number of people taking the courses divided by the number of juniors the prior year, which obviously isnt even close to a perfect selection criteria

[Coldjensens]

OCHSA is a high school that adds arts to the curriculum at the end of the day. Academics are the primary focus of the school and the primary success of the school. they are more successful with their academics than in arts when compared to other schools. It is not a school that only teaches kids in the arts. A large number of the graduates go into other fields. It is always in the top ranked high schools in OC for academics. In other words, its academic offerings and success are as good or better than almost every other OC high school. They have as many AP students as anywhere. It should be included.

[VeronikaW]

Yikes, what happened to Woodbridge high school?? When I went there, it was one of the best, and it hasn't made the list since 2005! Sad!

[ocexpo]

This only takes into account public high schools. Oxford, and others would not make this list because they aren't public high schools.

[biggyboy]

the new u.s. news rankings published in late 2007 are a lot more accurate than the one found in newsweek. granted they still have some sorting to do since this was their first time ranking high schools but it is still a better measure.

[Coldjensens]

They are public schools. They are charter schools (most of them) but not private.