High School Data
The California Department of Education has been collecting basic data on students and teachers for each school year since 1980. The resulting data repository is called the California Basic Educational Data System (CBEDS). Over the years local educational agencies and government organizations have used this database in their funding, research, program planning, and policy decisions. Thanks to the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), parents are entitled to more information than ever before about the quality of their children’s schools. Under NCLB, school districts are required to prepare and distribute an annual report card on their performance as a condition of receiving federal funding. The average SAT Reasoning Test score, the AP exam score distribution, and other relevant data regarding each high school are all publicly available.
The SAT Reasoning Test (SAT) is a standardized test used by nearly all college admissions throughout the United States to evaluate a student’s college readiness. Owned, published, and developed by the College Board, the SAT consists of three distinct sections that objectively measure the critical reading, mathematical reasoning, and writing skills of the students. Each year, more than two million students take the SAT.
SAT scores are arguably the most reliable measure of a high school’s ability to prepare their students for college. The scores from each of the three sections can range from 200 to 800, so the best possible total score is 2400. Since the average score for each section is roughly 500, the average total score is about 1500. Nearly all traditional four-year colleges require SAT scores as part of the application process for high school students.
In general, most high school students must achieve a combined SAT score of at least 1500 for admissions into the mid-tier colleges. To be considered by the top-tier colleges and universities like Stanford and MIT, students need a total score of at least 2000.
Advanced Placement (AP) Program
High schools are increasingly being evaluated by the success of their Advanced Placement (AP) programs. The AP program is a series of college-level courses offered to high school students. If students score high enough on the AP Exam for the course, they can receive college credit from most universities. AP Exams are graded on a scale of 1 to 5. While a score of 3 is considered passing, most top-tier colleges like Stanford University will only award college credit if students score a 4 or higher on the AP Exams.
In California, a good measure of how well a high school does at motivating and preparing its students for college is the percentage of its graduating seniors admitted to the well-respected and highly-competitive University of California (UC) System. This statistic is calculated for each high school as the Number of Graduates Admitted to the UC System divided by the Total Number of Graduates.
Dublin High School Fact Sheet
The Dublin High School Fact Sheet for the 2008-2009 school year is a one-page summary produced by the Around Dublin Team using publicly available data from the CDE and School Wise Press. Our summary is available in both Traditional Chinese (繁體中文) and English. We would like to thank Around Dublin reader George Wu for his invaluable help in proofreading the Traditional Chinese edition of our report.
