Best High Schools in America for 2010
US News & World Report just released their list of America’s Best High Schools for 2010. The schools awarded with Gold, Silver, and Bronze Medals and Honorable Mention were chosen based on their excellence in three primary areas:
- Performance on State High School Exams
- Performance of Disadvantaged Students
- College Readiness Performance
The last criterion is an effective approach to winnowing out schools that purely “teach to the test”.
Five Tri-Valley schools were awarded Silver medals. These schools are in the top 3% of all high schools in the United States:
- Pleasanton: Amador Valley and Foothill High Schools
- Danville: Monte Vista and San Ramon Valley High Schools
- San Ramon: California High School (Dougherty Valley was too new to be considered for this year’s rankings)
Dublin High School was not awarded a medal or honorable mention in the 2010 rankings.
Mission San Jose of Fremont was ranked #1 out of all traditional public high schools (open enrollment, non-magnet, non-charter) in the United States.
Remarkably, more than one third (9) of the top 26 traditional public high schools in the country are within 35 miles of Dublin. Four of the nine are in the East Bay (Mission San Jose, Piedmont, Campolindo, Miramonte) and the other five are in the South Bay (Gunn, Monta Vista, Palo Alto, Saratoga, Lynbrook). The median enrollment of these nine Bay Area Gold Medal schools is 1,500. The mean enrollment of the East Bay Gold Medal schools is 1,310:
- Mission San Jose – 1,970
- Piedmont – 780
- Campolindo – 1,208
- Miramonte – 1,282
The common belief has been that high schools require a minimum of 2,000 students to provide kids with the breadth and depth of courses necessary to achieve academic success. The average enrollment figures above seem to refute this conventional thinking.
Charter high schools currently represent a relatively small proportion of all United States secondary schools; however, an impressive 16 of the top 91 high schools in the country are charter schools. Their mean enrollment is 444. The following map was featured in the article to highlight the rapidly-growing charter school movement:
8:08 AM on December 15th, 2009
(Insert obligatory comment from those against Charter schools here and direct them to OneDublin web site.)
4:34 PM on December 15th, 2009
To “anonymous” OneDublin.org is not anti-charter schools as has been made clear in numerous articles posted on the site. Charter schools serve a purpose when solving a real problem.
OneDublin.org contends that the combination of academic choice + performing arts choice + athletic choice + extracurricular choice is much more difficult to achieve in a smaller school. OneDublin.org further argues that Smaller Learning Communities can be effectively applied in larger comprehensive schools – combining the benefits of a small school environment with the benefits of scale. College campuses are structured in much the same way, to great effect.
OneDublin.org has not been convinced that adding a second high school at this time will improve education in Dublin – rather, OneDublin.org argues that a second undersized high school will reduce choice, result in programming cuts for high school students across Dublin.
OneDublin.org is further highly skeptical of Dublin Learning Corp.’s ability to create a quality school – the lack of any experience launching or managing a high school, the lack of any parents on the board with children attending Dublin schools, and the heavy reliance on Livermore Charter School is concerning.
While OneDublin.org has clearly taken a position on the charter high school issue, the mandate for OneDublin.org is much broader and is a voice for parents who want to improve our current public schools.
Regarding the ranking, Dublin High currently has testing requirements to take certain AP and Honors classes which therefore impacts AP participation rate. It is a valid debate to be had whether or not that makes sense, and OneDublin.org was setup specifically for the purpose of having those debates.
It is important to note that the ranking does not take into account that 98% of Dublin High graduates in 2009 reported attending college, and that includes every UC and CSU campus in the State plus many top tier private colleges across the country. If your goal is getting your kids to college, the odds are with you at Dublin High.
Creating a new high school should not be taken lightly and therefore should be subject to rigorous and rational debate. If a new charter school is launched in Dublin – and then fails like 29% of charter high schools (primarily due to funding problems) – students will suffer. OneDublin.org welcomes that debate and encourages all Dublin parents to actively participate.
10:50 AM on December 15th, 2009
Thank you very much, John. Very interesting statistics!!!
Compared with all the medal schools, I think, Dublin High is lagging not only in API score (directly related to State Standard Tests), but also in College Readiness Score (directly related to AP participation rate). Some of the small top charter schools have almost 100% of their students participating in AP classes. So their College Readiness score is very high.
4:39 PM on December 15th, 2009
For the record, Dublin High’s API in 2009 was 844 – better than 90% of charter high schools in California. Does that mean charter high schools are bad? Of course not. It simply means Dublin High is a good school – and as a community, working together, can be even better.
AP participation rate is a valid debate that has nothing to do with whether a school is district-run or charter. It was specifically for those interested in having that debate within the context of our current public schools that http://www.OneDublin.org was founded.
For a 10-minute summary of OneDublin.org’s position on the issue you can view our Online Town Hall Webinar replay at http://onedublin.org/2009/12/05/onedublin-org-online-town-hall-replay-available-now/.
4:43 PM on December 15th, 2009
Minor typo – Dublin High’s API score in 2009 increased by 44 points to 842 (which is still better than 90% of charter high schools in California).
5:01 PM on December 15th, 2009
One key point that I get out of this article is that for a good high school, not only API score matters, but also College Readiness score is very important. Some of the medal schools have similar API scores to DHS, but they have much better College Readiness scores.
One example is Arcadia High in Southern California. It is awarded Silver and its API score is around 850. It can get Silver because of its high College Readiness score (around 50, meaning about 50% of students attending AP classes). As a comparison, the score for DHS is less than 20 (actual score not listed because it is too low). No offense because I am just stating the facts.
5:18 PM on December 15th, 2009
Something to note is that Arcadia High School has an enrollment of over 3,600, and they offer 33 AP classes, compared to I think 21 at DHS. The wide range of AP classes are so diverse and specialized at Arcadia because they have the student population to offer them, and the participation in AP is much higher than DHS because of the diverse offerings. If Dublin had an AP Art History or AP Music Theory, clearly we would have more students involved BECAUSE of those classes. Kids that might take AP Art may not be cut out for AP Calculus or AP Stats, but they would still count toward the AP percentage school-wide nonetheless. The diversity entices more participants for sure.
5:46 PM on December 15th, 2009
I agree that more diversity of AP classes would encourage higher participation. But on the other hand, given limited resource and limited number of AP classes that can be offered, what should a high school do to encourage higher participation? Apparently, some of the smaller schools can do that, including those listed in this article.
8:06 PM on December 15th, 2009
So the only way Dublin High can become a silver medal school is to have an enrollment of over 3600?
7:13 PM on December 15th, 2009
Let’s try swapping out OneDublin.org for DUSD whenever appropriate and see how it sounds, shall we?
Dublin Unified School District (DUSD) contends that the combination of academic choice + performing arts choice + athletic choice + extracurricular choice is much more difficult to achieve in a smaller school. DUSD further argues that Smaller Learning Communities can be effectively applied in larger comprehensive schools – combining the benefits of a small school environment with the benefits of scale. College campuses are structured in much the same way, to great effect.
DUSD has not been convinced that adding a second high school at this time will improve education in Dublin – rather, DUSD argues that a second undersized high school will reduce choice, result in programming cuts for high school students across Dublin.
DUSD is further highly skeptical of Dublin Learning Corp.’s ability to create a quality school – the lack of any experience launching or managing a high school, the lack of any parents on the board with children attending Dublin schools, and the heavy reliance on Livermore Charter School is concerning.
While DUSD has clearly taken a position on the charter high school issue, the mandate for DUSD is much broader and is a voice for parents who want to improve our current public schools.
Regarding the ranking, Dublin High currently has testing requirements to take certain AP and Honors classes which therefore impacts AP participation rate. It is a valid debate to be had whether or not that makes sense, and OneDublin.org is simply a proxy organization setup specifically by the DUSD for the purpose of killing any possibility of a second high school in Dublin.
It is important to note that the ranking does not take into account that 98% of Dublin High graduates in 2009 reported attending college, and that includes every UC and CSU campus in the State plus many top tier private colleges across the country. If your goal is getting your kids to college, the odds are with you at Dublin High.
Creating a new high school should not be taken lightly and therefore should be subject to rigorous and rational debate. If a new charter school is launched in Dublin – and then fails like 29% of charter high schools (primarily due to funding problems) – students will suffer. DUSD welcomes that debate and encourages all Dublin parents to actively participate.
=====
Sounds to me like the DUSD has already published their rejection.
9:41 PM on December 15th, 2009
OneDublin.org was founded by James Morehead, 2008-9 School Site Council Co-President for Fallon Middle School and parent of children attending Green Elementary and Dublin High. My day job is easily determined via Google – I’m an executive at a Silicon Valley tech company. I donate some of my limited free time to improving Dublin public education. Despite the “find & replace” effort from the anonymous poster, OneDublin.org is an independent parent-run group.
For those who believe we can improve our existing public schools by working together as parents – join http://www.OneDublin.org. If you are planning to attend Dublin’s public elementary and middle schools – even if you plan to support the charter high school – join OneDublin.org for your elementary and middle school years.
Dublin Learning Corp., its proxy Around Dublin and their supporters believe otherwise and have the right to do so.
8:22 PM on December 15th, 2009
“So the only way Dublin High can become a silver medal school is to have an enrollment of over 3600?”
Uh, no. I was offering some possible explanations why that high school might have 50% AP participation. I never said anything about any silver medal.
If you’re interested, this is from the article: “Only schools that had values greater than 20 in their college readiness index scored high enough to meet this criterion for gold and silver medal selection.”
And…
“A three-step process determined the best high schools. The first two steps ensured that the schools serve all their students well, using state proficiency standards as the benchmarks. For those schools that made it past the first two steps, a third step assessed the degree to which schools prepare students for college-level work.”
So to answer your question, that’s how Dublin gets a silver medal.
10:23 PM on December 15th, 2009
People should stop mentioning Dublin One dot org. It will just create more traffic for the site. Just refer to it as ‘the other site’ will do.
1:53 PM on December 17th, 2009
“Anonymous” – thanks for recommending “Dublin One dot org” – picked up the domain and pointed it at http://www.OneDublin.org.
11:03 AM on January 22nd, 2010
Front page article in today’s Tri-Valley Herald about this exact topic:
“Tri-Valley Schools Win National Honor”
http://www.insidebayarea.com/…/ci_14241195
Note that it took the reporter, Eric Louie, over a month to report this news, which Around Dublin reported on 12/15/09. This despite the fact that it is based on an actual published article (in U.S. News & World Report), unlike Mr. Louie’s recent fluff piece about Dublin HS being listed in a magazine article that is reportedly going to be published six months from now. Perhaps that’s because Dublin HS does not appear among the top 1787 public high schools in the U.S. News & World Report.
Key excerpt from Mr. Louie’s article:
“Those winning the silver rank in the East Bay were Acalanes High School in Lafayette in the Acalanes district, Lionel Wilson College Preparatory Academy in Oakland, Amador Valley High and Foothill High in Pleasanton; and in the San Ramon Valley school district, California High in San Ramon, and Monte Vista and San Ramon Valley high schools in Danville. The San Ramon Valley school district’s fourth and newest comprehensive high school, Dougherty Valley High in San Ramon, was ineligible because it has not yet had a graduating class.”
Mr. Louie omits the fact that the remaining Tri-Valley public high schools (Dublin, Livermore and Granada) failed to earn the honor. Perhaps he likes to think that he focuses on the positive. So why can he always be counted on to highlight any opposition to Tassajara Prep in his articles, while conveniently failing to interview supporting parents like myself? Based on recent articles he’s written about Tassajara Prep, Dublin HS, and the OneDublin hate group that is obviously a shill for the Dublin Unified School District, Eric Louie appears to be in bed with DUSD. Keep that in mind when reading any future articles he writes about Tassajara Prep.
Say, I wonder if Eric Louie will still be around in 10 years when Tassajara Prep has become one of the top academic high schools in the Bay Area and even Dublin city officials are bragging about it to everyone they know?
12:45 PM on January 22nd, 2010
As is widely known now Dublin High will be included in Newsweek’s 2010 list of America’s Top Public High Schools (http://wp.me/pHUAa-2T). US News & World Report uses a different methodology for which Dublin High has not yet qualified, but is pretty close based on the 2009 API increase to 842 (note that the most recent US News & World Report ranking is based on 2007-8 data, not 2008-9 data). Had Dublin High’s API been 862 during the review period, Dublin High would have received a Silver medal of recognition as outlined below (there are 3 criteria, Dublin High met 2 of the 3). Dublin High’s API increased 44-points in 2009 – which makes 862 an achievable target.
Below is a detailed explanation from the analyst who compiles the US News & World Report list (Paul Gazzero, Standards & Poor’s), in response to OneDublin.org’s direct inquiry regarding the ranking:
“The short answer to your question is that Dublin’s performance for the 2007-08 school year did not make the threshold we set for step 1 of our multi-step methodology. Had Dublin met step 1 this year, it would have earned a Silver medal of recognition. Please allow me to explain how the methodology works in order to better indicate how Dublin High fared against the selection criteria.
Overview of Best High Schools Method
The way in which we evaluate schools for America’s Best High Schools is a little different than some rankings. Instead of a general purpose formula that simply weights many different variables and allows for trade-offs, we have created a multi-step method for selection. These steps are based on our core philosophy that underlies the selection method – that the best schools serve all students well.
The three steps of the method are as follows:
1) identifying high schools that serve all students well by achieving performance levels in the core subjects of reading and math on state accountability tests that exceed statistical expectations given their relative levels of student poverty;
2) identifying high schools that serve the least advantaged student groups well by producing proficiency rates on state tests for black, Hispanic, and economically disadvantaged students that exceed state averages for these groups;
3) identifying high schools that provide students with access to a college-level curriculum, measured through participation and performance on AP and/or IB tests.
In Dublin’s case, the school did not meet step 1 this year. Had it met step 1, it would have been recognized as one of America’s Best High Schools.
Given Dublin’s poverty rate of approximately 2%, it would have needed to achieve a performance index of 862 in order to meet this step, higher than the 798 that it achieved.” (Paul Gazzero, Standards & Poor’s)
As noted above, 798 was Dublin High’s 2007-08 result, vs. 2008-09 when Dublin High achieved an API of 842. If you are interested in more details please contact us at onedublin@comcast.net.
For those who want to assess the “hate group” comment made in the anonymous posting for themselves visit http://www.OneDublin.org and you’ll find Dublin High students speaking about their high school experience, articles on Dublin High success, education resources for parents and, yes, respectful opposition to the proposed charter high school. We don’t “hate” those who are in support of the charter high school concept, we simply disagree with them.
Remember, OneDublin.org is the little guy in this debate – just a parent-founded volunteer initiative. Tassajara Prep has the Livermore-based Tri-Valley Learning Corp. as the driving force behind the charter petition, along with the publicity leverage of an established and successful blog (Around Dublin).
5:04 PM on January 22nd, 2010
Hi, Anonymous,
Let’s try to have a civilized debate. I have debated with James many times myself. Even though he has a strong opinion against Tassajara Prep, I think it is way over the limit when you call his OneDublin.org a hate group. I do not think that creates a positive image for Tassajara Prep supporters.
I think it would be good if you just point out the facts that DHS is not as good as other high schools in Pleasanton and San Ramon, no matter whether it gets into the Newsweek list or not. The other high schools will have higher ranking than DHS in Newsweek list.
It is great to have 98% of graduating students in DHS going to colleges. But the details of what kinds of colleges are equally (if not more) important. Just an example, Mission SJ High will not have much higher percentage of students going to colleges (at most 100%, right?), but more than 1/3 of them are going to UC equivalent or better colleges every year (compared to about 10% in DHS).
12:46 AM on January 23rd, 2010
I find it interesting that the anonymous poster doesn’t even read the paper that closely. If they did, they would realize that Eric Louie is the reporter for the paper; whereas, the column that mentioned DHS appearing in Newsweek was written by Alan Elias. For those that don’t know Alan, he is the original “Around Dublin” columnist for the paper, a true professional journalist. I find it somewhat ironic that this much confusion exists on the Around Dublin blog. Check out the source:
http://www.insidebayarea.com/dublin/ci_14182213
Furthermore, don’t trash Eric’s name as a good journalist, nor confuse his reporting with a columnist, and then on top of all that leave hate messages. I happen to know all of these individuals on a professional level and have spoken with them on several occasions. Both Eric and Alan are professional journalists who have reported on Education and events around Dublin longer than this blog has been in existence. It’s fine to disagree, but please take the time to learn about what you don’t understand before you begin criticizing. Otherwise it becomes a foot-in-mouth exercise.
Hey, could we start including the IP addresses of everyone who posts anonymously? I think you may find similar styles of writing between the negative poster(s). It is almost as if the same person posts to gain reactions realizing that everyone loves to react to these posts which in turn drives more clicks to the site…hmm… but really, this type of attention on Dublin is unnecessary. It would be much more productive to have informed readers engaged in an informational-based discussion vs. mindless babble and misinformation that is a disservice to all in the City of Dublin.
5:48 AM on January 23rd, 2010
Hi Rick – just a slight clarification, the Around Dublin column has been in place for many years. While Alan Elias is the current columnist, I seem to recall that many other folks have written for the column. In fact, I believe that former Dublin Mayor Janet Lockhart was the Around Dublin columnist at one point.
Thx, John Z.
3:21 PM on January 24th, 2010
Thanks for pointing that out, yes Alan is the current columnist. After reading my comments again, I guess I was thinking more of the originality of the Around Dublin column in comparison to the blog, but I did make it sound as if Alan was the original author.
On another note, has the Around Dublin Blog team given any thought on developing a comment policy beyond the “free speech” piece? Many times, I feel that the “best of Dublin” isn’t on display in the comment sections and when people compare the cities in the tri-valley, unfortunately Dublin sticks out since a few residents have this virtual platform to spread their spiteful messages. Here is a suggested link from a well-known author, Tim O’Reilly http://radar.oreilly.com/tim/
Since the blog is rising in its readership and prominence, it may be time to consider a few of the following suggestions:
http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/03/call-for-a-blog-1.html
2:02 PM on January 22nd, 2010
In the past I expressed conditional support for the idea of a new charter high school. I received a thoughtful and productive response from OneDublin. I see no reason to think it’s a ” hate group that is obviously a shill for the Dublin Unified School District”.
Let’s focus on the needs of our kids, not act like kids.
Eric Haggin
(full disclosure: I occasionally contribute real estate related articles to AroundDublin)
3:48 PM on January 22nd, 2010
Given that you have such strong opinions on the subject, and obviously only side with the Tassajara Prep group, it seems rather sheepish that you wouldn’t post your name so that everyone reading your comments would know who was making them.
12:15 AM on January 23rd, 2010
Wow – I am sorry I am unable to get on here to post very often but I have a life…and I think most of you (on both sides of these issues) sound ridicules. I am a professional, lifelong Tri-Valley resident, live in Dublin and have kids in DUSD. I don’t care if you start a charter school and I think DHS is as good a school as any in the area.
I think that both websites are run by elitists and sometimes I think that many of the comments in the blogs could be described by other words that end with “ist”. It is good that all of you, “that have nothing against Muslims” were able to get that center to go away from your neighborhoods. I know, I know. You wouldn’t want a Christian church there either.
It is clear to me that part of the problem is that all of you are using Newsweek and World News as definitive source. Has anyone calculated the amount of time you all have spent arguing about these things. Some of you might try Wikipedia too.
The whole story is out there for those that want to do the research. The CA Department of Education has all the fact there for you. You can compare DHS with Foothill and Amador but you should also take into account their student populations, diversity and socio-economics. When you talk about Foothill or Miramonte taking care of all of their students who do you believe those demographics encompass. How many schools in those districts are Title 1 schools? (I am going to assume that all you smart people know what that is.) If you look at the facts DHS and several of the other schools are different demographically than what you would find in Orinda or Pleasanton. Thankfully to all you smart people moving into eastern Dublin this is slowly changing. Also if any of you would take the time to read you would know that student achievement gap exists because money and race. Some of the area schools that you people are listing off don’t have those students (or many of them) that DUSD have to serve.
Like I said earlier I don’t care if the charter school comes in or not. I would say that they would stand a better chance of succeeding if they had someone in their leadership that understood something about education. (You guys need to read some of the educational theorists that you have quoted in your application). I also don’t fear a charter because I don’t believe that you will be able to compete with the Dublin Schools. I however, do think there is a place for you. You will get the students that are not getting the playing time or the students of the parents that don’t think their children are being treated fair or the ones that are discipline problems. I am happy that you are up to the challenge of taking all of them. This will ensure that my student’s teachers do not have to waste time on those kid’s parents. So please, Mr. Morehead, let it go. You make it sound like DUSD has something to apologize for or that you need to provide excuses for them. DUSD will be fine and the majority of Dublin residents on the east and west know what is going on and are happy.
9:12 PM on April 27th, 2010
Wow, are we saying a school is bad if it’s only in the top 6% instead of top 3% nationwide? I went to a similar high school and ALL my high school friends went on to very prestigious colleges (mostly private) and graduate/professional schools like ivy leagues, Stanford, University of Chicago, etc. I’m sure those colleges won’t pick a B student over an A student just because the B student came from a top 3% (and not a lowly top 6% high school).
10:25 PM on April 27th, 2010
What you are saying would be more credible if you can provide more details about your high school. You can boast whatever you want but smart people in Dublin can easily figure out whether you are lying.
9:16 PM on April 27th, 2010
With all this nick-picking on a few percentage difference, has anyone compared the amount of parental pressure and teen suicide rates at these schools? I’d rather not sent my kids to schools where the parents are that intense.
10:31 PM on April 27th, 2010
Hey, think about it, in Olympics, even 0.01 second counts; in sports, even 1 point counts. So why doesn’t 3% in school ranking count? 3% will allow many more students to go to top colleges. That is the difference.
9:51 PM on June 5th, 2010
My thoughts in response to all the comments about Dublin High, I graduated class of 2008 from Dublin High. I received an almost perfect on the exit exams and I scored high on my college entrance exams. If you ask me, DHS is one of the best schools a student could go to. The teachers CARE about the students and want to make sure all do well. That is what makes a school, not a football team, not if they charge millions for tuition, and especially not just for the amount of students who are in AP classes.