The Preuss School, a charter middle and high school administered by UCSD in conjunction with the San Diego Unified School District, has been named the ‘best public high school with an economically disadvantaged population’ statewide by BusinessWeek magazine.
The magazine’s Web site worked with San Francisco-based nonprofit organization GreatSchools ‘mdash; an online rating resource that uses parent feedback to name the best high school in each state, based on a range of categories ‘mdash; in selecting the winners.
The Preuss School, taking the official title of ‘Top Performing Low-Income School,’ boasted the highest-weighted California Standards Test score among California’s economically disadvantaged schools, GreatSchools editors said. Other award categories included the state’s ‘Top Performing’ school overall and the ‘Most Improved’ school.
‘Though we like to be ranked among the best schools in general, and not just among those that serve the economically disadvantaged, we’re excited about the recognition, and we’ve congratulated the students,’ Preuss School Principal Scott Barton said.
Based on results from the 2007-08 California Standards Tests, the Preuss School received an overall ranking of eight out of 10 possible points.
‘We are all so very proud of all the marvelous rankings that occur to the Preuss School, where a full 94 percent of the motivated student body go on to four-year colleges,’ UCSD spokeswoman Pat JaCoby said.
The Preuss School’s parent ranking on GreatSchools.net is four out of five possible stars.
‘Like the other rankings we’ve gotten in Newsweek and U.S. News ‘amp; World Reports, it shows that while the kids are low income and come from underrepresented families, they are still performing with the nation’s top students,’ Barton said.
Similar lists published in 2008 published by Newsweek magazine and U.S. News ‘amp; World Report ranked the Preuss School sixth among the nation’s top high schools and eighth out of a pool of over 21,000 public high schools, respectively.
Readers can contact Sarah de Crescenzo at [email protected].