High Schools
I River Valley high (Charter)                     Lakeside Union Elementary
2 Preuss Model School at UCSD                 San Diego Unified
3 Viking Center                                             Grossmont Union High
4 San Dieguito High Academy                     San Dieguito Union High
5 High Tech                                                     San Diego City Unified
6 Coronado                                                     Coronado Unified
7 La Jolla                                                         San Diego City Unified
8 Rancho Bernardo                                         Poway Unified
9 Mt. Carmel                                                     Poway Unified
10 Poway                                                             Poway Unified
11 La Costa Canyon                                         San Dieguito Union High
12 Westview                                                     Poway Unified
13 Scripps Ranch                                             San Diego City Unified
14 Julian                                                         Julian Union High
15 Carlsbad                                                     Carlsbad Unified
16 University City                                             San Diego City Unified
17 Sun Valley                                                Charter Ramona City Unified
18 Mira Mesa                                                 San Diego City Unified
19 School of Business and Technology         Oceanside Unified
20 Henry                                                         San Diego City Unified
21 West Hills                                                     Grossmont Union High
27 Escondido Charter                                     Escondido Union High
23 San Pasqual                                                 Escondido Union High
24 Valhalla                                                         Grossmont Union High
25 Steele Canyon                                             Grossmont Union High
26 Ramona                                                         Ramona City Unified
27 EI Camino                                                     Oceanside Unified
28 Eastlake                                                         Sweetwater Union High
29 Rancho Buena Vista                                     Vista Unified
30 Otay Ranch                                                     Sweetwater Union High
31 Granite Hills                                                 Grossmont Union High
32 Rondo Vista                                                     Sweetwater Union High
33 San Diego Creative & Performing Arts         San Diego City Unified
34 Grossmont                                                     Grossmont Union High
35 Grossmont Middle College                         Grossmont Union High
36 Guajome Park                                             Academy Vista Unified
37 Bonsall Charter Academy for Learning     Bonsall Union Elementary
38 Helix                                                             Grossmont Union High
39 Mountain Empire Senior High                    Mountain Empire Unified
40 Borego Spriigs                                             Borrego Springs Unified
41 Morse                                                             San Diego City Unified
42 Pacific View Charter                                 Oceanside Unified
43 Fallbrook                                                 Fallbrook Union High
44 Escondido                                                     Escondido Union High
45 Oceanside                                             Oceanside Unified
46 Valley Center                                         Valley Center Pauma Unified
47 Orange Glen                                             Escondido Union High
48 Santana                                                     Grossmont Union High
49 San Marcos                                                 San Marcos Unified
50 El Capitan                                                 Grossmont Union High

 

This analysis is written based upon published 2004 API test results provided by the California Department of Education, and from the personal viewpoint of someone who has more than 5,000 hours of teaching at the university level, and a love of education.

Education does not take place in a vacuum, or necessarily in a classroom. It is true that any child can get an education anywhere, but it is easier in schools that have a climate of academic excellence. This essay will try to identify those schools with a higher climate of academic excellence.

The best high schools in the County, statistically and anecdotally, are private schools. That said, most parents utilize public schools and need some methodology of assuring that their children have the best opportunity available for receiving a good education.

 2005 Update

(For a 2005 column I published in the San Diego Business Journal in 2005 on The Nations Report Card, please click the button on the left.)

Apparently, we have attained Lake Woebegone status, where all children are above average!

Reporting on the latest API scores, the North County Times page one headlines above the fold proclaim, “Most North County students outpacing their peers on test scores.”

That certainly is placing the best face on the actual numbers. When it comes to “ranking,” the experts are on the sports page where statistics are a way of life. I do not recall any headline saying “Padres above average” – because in all sports the criteria is comparison against the best. The Padres, Chargers, whomever, are x number of games behind the best. Being “above average” or even “above .500” is a feel-good aside, and absolutely meaningless.

The average in California education is none too good by every measure, so being “better than average” is a measurement against a highly diminished standard.

In the one page of statistical data of North County schools, the “best” is the Gold Standard set by the Poway Unified School District (PUSD). The PUSD is not the best school district in the state – not even the highest scoring school district in the County – but overall in North County it probably is the best we have. (Actually Del Mar Union and San Dieguito Union High both are perfect on exceeding the announced numerical standard, but they are much smaller.)

Comparing other school districts against the PUSD is a simple mathematical matter because the State has declared a school API score of 800 as the minimum goal for every school in California. PUSD has 29 regular schools, of which 27 exceed the 800 standard. The Escondido Union High and Elementary districts combined have 25 regular schools, of which only five exceed the 800 standard. Vista’s combined regular schools number 23, of which only two exceed the 800 standard. Oceanside has 24 regular schools, and only five exceed the 800 minimum standard. At the top end of the smaller districts, San Dieguito Union High District has seven regular schools and all seven exceed the 800 standard, while Del Mar Union Elementary has six regular schools and not only do all six exceed 800, but five of them exceed 900! (1,000 is “perfect.”)

At the bottom end of the small school district scale is Valley Center/Pauma Unified and the Ramona City Unified, with seven and eight regular schools respectively. The Ramona district has one school above the 800 mark; Valley Center/Pauma has none.

There is a lot of chaff placed in the statistics as a bow to political correctness, and there are separate scores and rankings “adjusted” for socio-economic and ethnic factors. Again, turning to the sports pages for guidance, sports and business each representing more “real life” experiences than does academia, it is easy to determine that PC scoring is pap. Sports rankings are not scored in baseball by factoring in bad childhood, or English-speaking. Fortune 500 rankings are not adjusted for ethnic hiring. No one adjusts…just academia.

The pure numbers are there for anyone to see, but, admittedly, most people will only read the headlines – and headlines do not always represent the impact of any article, and in some cases an article does not represent the facts. Journalists are not necessarily experts in education (or anything else), and almost certainly are not experts in reading statistical reviews – particularly statistical reviews encumbered with ethnic and socio-economic garbage.

I urge everyone to read the numbers, and not take the spin assigned by whatever educator happens to be within earshot. There are always people who can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig.

Remember that there are good schools in bad districts, and bad schools in good districts. In the end, your child only attends one school, and there are many criteria by which to select that school. API numbers are only one criteria, but it is a useful shorthand to assess one measurable aspect of the selection analysis.


Analysis of schools that serve the Hidden Meadows community

Hidden Meadows is a community that is divided at Cerveza Baja. To the north of Cerveza Baja, children default into the Valley Center schools and residences to the south default into the Escondido school districts.

I use the term "defaults" intentionally because throughout the area, students may petition to attend different schools in their assigned school districts or schools outside their assigned school districts. Students attending the schools within the school district they are assigned have school transportation, but those who are accepted outside their assigned school must provide their own transportation.

The good news is that, although the Escondido schools have a high number of "under-performing schools", none of those "under-performing" schools service the Hidden Meadows community. The bad news is that California in general has a poor quality of education, so even the good schools are judged against a diminished standard. The State of California spends $7,771 in public funds, on average, for each student K-12 in the State.

As can be seen from the chart below, San Pasqual High is the class of Escondido, and Escondido advertises that it has an "open transfer" policy. In fact, in July 2002 the President's "Leave no Child Behind" initiative identified both Escondido High School and Orange Glen High School as performing in such an unsatisfactory manner as to require that their students be permitted to transfer or have access to special tutoring. (Del Dios Middle School in Escondido was awarded a similar "Dunce Cap.")

There is an excellent  "Charter School" in Escondido. Charter Schools are public schools that are not constrained by onerous rules and regulations on building sites, or unionized teacher hiring requirements. Basically, a Charter School can set its own rules without adhering to the State Education Code, and it can prove itself after several years by its students scores on statewide tests. Charter Schools have not been around sufficiently long to prove themselves statistically but recent scores and anecdotal evidence is that they are better than most public schools..Escondido Charter School gets high marks from the parents of the students, and a lot of good press.

Homes located north of Cerveza Baja have their students attend Valley Center High School, which is too new to have taken SAT tests. Anecdotal evidence and new API scores indicates that the new Valley Center High School is going to be a relatively good school, but there is no existing statistical data on the SAT level, and there will not be for several years. On the API, however, Valley Center High grades better than any Escondido (except San Pasqual), San Marcos, or Fallbrook High School!

In March, 2005, the Escondido High School District and the entire Valley Center/Pauma Valley Unified School District was placed in a warning status by the No Child Left Behind system because of poor performance and  continued problems.

Escondido High School District Exit Exam

The California High School Exit Exam is one way to judge a school district, and when judging the Escondido District things do not look particularly good.

In Math, the Statewide passing rate is 32%, San Diego County is 32%, and the high schools in Escondido average 27%.

In English, the Statewide passing rate is 54%, San Diego County is 52%, and the high schools in Escondido average 40%.

It is possible for a student to take the exam as many times as is necessary to pass it, the exam is based on an eighth grade curriculum, but STILL the passing rate is LOW. The exams are rated at the eighth grade level...

Middle Schools

There is now specific statistical data that would let a parent choose from among the local middle schools with the API ranking. Those students from north of Cerveza Baja attend Valley Center Middle School. The nearest Middle School to Hidden Meadows is Rincon.

The State of California has just instituted the API scoring, and in future years its rating system will take into account graduation rates and a number of other factors. While the State has not yet told us everything we need to know, it has cataloged the worst schools, or "Underperforming Schools Needing Immediate Intervention." There are 161 such schools in the County, BUT NONE OF THEM REGULARLY SERVE HIDDEN MEADOWS.

With the caveat that California stands, for example, 48^th of the 50 states in Fourth Grade reading – meaning that California schools are not very good in general.

These are the most recent scores and standings of Escondido and Valley Center Schools, as of the rankings in August, 2002.

Statewide Rank
 A rank of 10 is the highest and 1 is the lowest, so in "Rank" and "Similar Schools Rank" you want the highest number. The following lists are sorted first  by "State Rank" and then by api test results. I did this so that the schools appear within their respective types in a manner best read as "Quality." Highest schools appear first. (Editor's Comment: Personally I believe the so-called "Similar Rank is a worthless number, since parents seldom care how the school ranks with some nameless group of schools somewhere else in the state. Generally, where parents have choices, it is among schools in the district in which the family lives and people are unconcerned how the school of their choice rates against some "similar" school elsewhere in the state.

Generally speaking, therefore the numbers you are looking for is a 9 or 10 in "State Rank" and a minimum API score of 800 or more.

I have excluded "Similar Rank" from these 2005 rankings because they are "feel-good" scores and worse than meaningless.
 

ESCONDIDO SCHOOLS -- Posted 03/19/05

I have left the following 2003 scores on the Website simply because they are useful for comparison.

Valley Center (Again, higher numbers are better)

Posted 03/19/05

I have left the 2003 scores below on this web for comparison only