Preuss School at UC San Diego
Named Among Top 10 High Schools
in Nation by U.S. News and World Report

December 6, 2007

By Pat JaCoby

The Preuss School at the University of California, San Diego was named 10th of 18,000 high schools surveyed by U.S. News and World Report for its first annual “America’s Best High Schools” report.

The magazine’s editors said that high schools in 40 states were put through a three-step analysis. “First,” they noted, “we measured how each school’s student performed on state tests, adjusting for student circumstances. We next evaluated how well each school’s disadvantaged students did. Finally, we looked at whether the school was successful in providing college-level coursework.”

Thomas Jefferson High School in Fairfax County, Alexandria, Va., was ranked as first with a college readiness score of 100. Preuss School, at 10th   rank of the top 100, had a score of 95.8. The 100 schools that did the best in the U.S. News and World Report analysis earned gold medals.

Preuss is a middle and high school dedicated to providing intensive college prep education for motivated low-income students who will become the first in their families to graduate from college. The school is jointly chartered by UCSD and the San Diego School District. The school’s demographics are 59 percent Hispanic, 20 percent Asian, 13 percent African American and 6 percent White/other.

One of the school’s graduates four years ago, admitted to UCSD, now serves as president of Associated Students at UCSD and has been nominated as one of San Diego Magazine’s “50 to watch in 2008.”  Other graduates have gone on to leadership roles at  UC campuses and prestigious private universities and garnered awards ranging from robotics to the piano.

The school was named this spring by Newsweek magazine as 9th among 1,200 high schools in the U.S. regarded as “the best high schools in America.”  Additionally, this year, Preuss School was given a National Charter School of the Year award by the Center for Education Reform, and honored as one of the nation’s first “Certified Charter Schools,” verifying that participating schools are upholding standards that define a high quality school. In a third award, Preuss was the only charter school in San Diego County to be selected a 2007 California Distinguished School.

The school is unique in that the school year is 198 days vs. the traditional 180; the school day is 396 minutes vs. an average 360, and class size is smaller, or approximately 25 students vs. 34 districtwide. It also benefits from a close association with UCSD, as an average 150 college tutors work with Preuss students per quarter and internships are provided for students on campus.

 

Media Contact: Pat JaCoby, 858-534-7404