San Diego Housing Bubble News and Analysis

What? MMHS ranked higher than Coronado, Scripps, and RB? Wow, that's definitely surprising to say the least. The best we can do in SD is Westview @181? That's pretty sad.

The problem with the results is the methodology used to calculate them.

My understanding is that other criteria, such as dropout rate, GPA per student/class, etc were not taken into account.

Rather the ranking simply looked at the number of Advanced Placement (AP) and Int'l Baccalaureate (IB) participants per school and divided that into the number of students in the school.

Seems like a pretty narrowly defined criterion.

Preuss was #10 and one of the 4 schools at SDHS's campus was #60.

But I was surprised by the rankings also. To see University City HS so close to Torrey Pines HS was a shocker to me.

I agree that the methodology is less than perfect. But it's the same methodology that newsweek has used for years. It's a data point... among many data points.

You forgot San Marcos High at 494!

and Carlsbad is only at 712.

btw, Hawthorne beats out Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Palos Verdes, and Irvine's Uni.

Hawthorne is the place to be!

Preuss is near the top, because they have lots of mandatory AP classes (ergo, large number of AP exams per student, which is Newsweek's only criterion). Low incomes and smartness are irrelevant.

I'm not sure what you mean by saying that Gunn is a "feeder" for Stanford. Stanford is a hard-to-get-into, expensive private university. If Gunn sends more students to Stanford than does Los Altos, there are other possible reasons (maybe parents of Gunn students are richer and more likely to afford the university?)

Los Altos sends 20% of students of its graduating class, on average, to UC universities. Gunn sends 25%, Monta Vista sends 30%. In San Diego, Torrey Pines is the best in this aspect, it also sends ~20%.

I call bullsheit. Weird methodology.

Wow! San Pasqual ahead of Torrey Pines. I call BS on that one too but GO SP!

This report has nothing to do with how well the CA schools are educating their students. it merely counts the percentage of kids taking the AP/IB etc. They do not even have to pass. They are no longer even chosen to be in AP by the school - the parents choose.
Dont let those numbers fool you.
This report is more about equal opportunity than anything else and should be viewed as that.... They are reporting which schools are most inclusionary in their toughest classes. It is a worthy idea, but in no way does this report have anything to do with successful schools and which are producing high achievers.

I'd bet my last 10 cents that the only reason someone would post this is because either their kids have or currently do attend one of the schools.

Every year it's the same with Newsweek's list. Next year Compton HS could pay 100%(which is fine and dandy with Newsweek, see the FAQ) and get 90% of their students to the test and they could be #1 in 2010. Ridiculous. No basis in reality.

I posted this. My kids do not (yet) go to any of these schools. They're in grade school.

But, yes, I'm interested in school issues. And some without kids might not be.

gaming the system for numbers ina school rating used to be limited to colleges and grad schools i think. that even high schools have to care about this is weird. i basically told the counselor at school my kid would be ina aprticular AP class, and so it was. now i guess i better make sure he does ok.

gaming the system for numbers ina school rating used to be limited to colleges and grad schools i think. that even high schools have to care about this is weird. i basically told the counselor at school my kid would be ina aprticular AP class, and so it was. now i guess i better make sure he does ok.