GARDEN GROVE, Calif. ― All seven comprehensive high schools in the Garden Grove Unified School District were identified as among the elite in state and national rankings released by U.S. News & World Report.
The magazine examined nearly 22,000 public high schools in 49 states, plus the District of Columbia, using data from the 2009-10 school year. The more than 4,850 schools that did the best in this review received gold, silver or bronze medals.
All seven district comprehensive high schools earned silver medals, placing them with the nation’s finest, according to the magazine’s analysis. Among GGUSD high schools, Garden Grove High School ranked the highest nationally at 739 followed by Bolsa Grande High, 942; La Quinta High, 1,016; Pacifica High; 1,081; Los Amigos High, 1,150; Santiago High, 1,191; and Rancho Alamitos High, 1,374.
Of the 2,407 public high schools in the state, just 506 earned medals, and only gold or silver schools were eligible for a state ranking in California. Garden Grove High School was 136 in the state ranking followed by Bolsa Grande High, 182; La Quinta High, 196; Pacifica High, 216; Los Amigos High, 231; Santiago High, 240; and Rancho Alamitos High, 289.
The magazine used a three-step process to determine the best in its rankings of U.S. public high schools. The first step determined whether each school’s students were performing better than expected for the average student in the state. The second step determined whether the school’s least-advantaged students were performing better than their statewide peers in math and reading proficiency.
For those schools that made it past the first two steps, a third step assessed the degree to which schools prepared students for college-level work using Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate test data as benchmarks for success.
Schools ranked 1 to 500 nationally were in the gold-medal category. The next group, ranked 501 to 2,008, were silver-medal winners. The balance of the top schools, an additional 2,869 campuses, were awarded bronze medals.
All high schools nationally ranked gold and silver are numerically ranked in their state based on their position in the national rankings.
