SANTA MONICA—The World Report released its annual list of the best high schools in the county, and Santa Monica High School ranked in the 105th place. The high school earned a college readiness index of 58.2, due to over 63 percent of the students attending Advanced Placement classes. The classes received a passing rate of 79 percent.
Top-Performing public schools are identified at both the national and state level from the 2017 rankings of best high schools. It includes data from over 28,000 high schools. U.S. News reported that 85 high schools in the state of California received gold medals, 416 received silver, and 154 received bronze.
All schools had to pass a four-step process to be considered a part of the best. The process determines whether the schools serve the entirety of its students, not just college-bound students. Within the first step, it is determined whether students are performing better than expected for the state. Those who pass, move on to step two, which assesses whether students who are disadvantaged perform better or about the same as other students in the state.
Within the next two steps, U.S. News looks at the graduation rate and the students’ college readiness. Passing step three involves having a graduation rate of 75 percent or more. The final step calculates the college readiness index, which is the amount of seniors who passed at least one Advanced Placement test, divided by the number of the school’s 12th graders.
Being ranked nationally requires schools to pass steps 1 through 3 and have a college readiness index of 20.91 or higher.
