U.S. News lauds 5 Tucson high schools, 2 in top 20

Five local high schools are praised in the upcoming issue of U.S. News & World Report, with two ranked among the top 20 in the nation.

The magazine's first annual list of American's top public high schools ranks University High School as 13th and BASIS Charter School as 16th.

University High is on the campus of Rincon High School, 421 N. Arcadia Ave., and has an academic program geared toward college preparation. BASIS, 3434 E. Broadway, also gears students toward college and consistently receives high marks.

Both schools have been on Newsweek magazine's lists of the nation's top public high schools. BASIS has been ranked sixth and third in Newsweek's past two lists, respectively. The magazine places University High in a separate category but also lauds its work. University High Principal Rosy Beetcher learned of the ranking Thursday in a letter from U.S. News & World Report Editor Brian Kelly.

Northland Preparatory Academy in Flagstaff was the only other Arizona school in the top 100, at 56th. The other Tucson-area schools honored by the magazine are Catalina Foothills High School, Sonoran Science Academy and Vision Charter School. Catalina Foothills received a silver medal and the other schools were given bronze. Patagonia Union High School, in Santa Cruz County, was given a bronze medal, too.

Schools were ranked primarily on three factors: achievement levels on state accountability tests for all students in reading and math, achievement on state tests for the school's "least advantaged" students, and college-readiness as measured by student performance in Advanced Placement tests.

The study took a couple of months, said Paul Gazzerro, director of analytical criteria for Standard & Poors, an international credit-rating agency that helped the magazine come up with the rankings.

Beetcher said she's excited about the latest accolade but it doesn't change the day-to-day at University High. "We're not into the competition. We do what we do on a daily basis," she said. "The everyday commitment to the school and the individual is what makes the difference." The three elements that make University High such a recognized school, Beetcher said, are students, teachers and parents.

"Whether I am in classrooms, at student activities, parent conferences or staff meetings, I continue to be impressed with the caliber of effort you put forth on a daily basis to shape the reputation University High enjoys," she wrote in a letter to parents, students and staff. "This does not happen as a result of being 'lucky' or 'anointed' in some way — it is a result of hard work and a commitment to the school and to each other." Most of the schools on the list — 51 percent — are in California, New York and Texas. The top school in the nation was Thomas Jefferson High School in Alexandria, Va.

So, a brief moment of smugness. I supposedly attend the 13th best public high school in the United States, for whatever a NewsWeek analyzes is worth.

Yeah!, and congrats for Tucson.

And I utterly break this tradition by being idiotic and sleepy. It’s late... Could the mod please change the title to “ U.S. News lauds 5 Tucson high schools, 2 in top 20”. Thanks.

I looked at this list and it's rather bogus. Here's an excerpt from the US News' Ranking Formula:

the second step determined whether the school's least-advantaged students (black, Hispanic, and low-income) were performing better than average for similar students in the state. We compared each school's math and reading proficiency rates for disadvantaged students with the statewide results for these disadvantaged student groups and then selected schools that were performing better than this state average.
Schools that made it through those first two steps became eligible to be judged nationally on the final step: college-readiness ...

So if you locale doesn't have any "disadvantaged" students your local school is disqualified from being "judged nationally." How absurd!

ML/NJ

Yeah, that’s why I gave my statements a qualifying remark. Just like political polls, these sort of surveys are always open to doubt.

Of course, the Catalina Foothills High School mentioned is extremely rich and mostly white. Very few disadvantaged kids, if I recall correctly. And even University High School is quite rich and has almost no blacks and few Hispanics (mostly White, Asian).

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