Schools

Mira Costa Not on Newsweek's List of Top Schools

But the Manhattan Beach high school did place on lists by the Washington Post and Forbes magazine.

After another year of being widely recognized as one of the top high schools in the nation, Mira Costa High has been left off Newsweek magazine's recently released list of America's 500 Best High Schools.

Nearby schools that made the list include Palos Verdes Peninsula (No. 60), South Torrance (No. 320) and Redondo Union (No. 405).

In Newsweek's 2010 list, Mira Costa ranked 381 out of 500.

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This year, the magazine used a revamped methodology.

According to its website, which posted the rankings on Tuesday, "Newsweek reached out to administrators, principals, guidance counselors, and Advanced Placement/International Baccalaureate coordinators at more than 10,000 public high schools across the country. In order to be considered for our list, each school had to complete a survey requesting specific data from the 2009-2010 academic year. In total, more than 1,100 schools were assessed to produce the final list of the top 500 high schools."

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Manhattan Beach Patch has been unable to confirm whether Mira Costa was reviewed for Newsweek's 2011 list. Calls to a press contact at the magazine were not returned. Mira Costa High Principal Ben Dale could not be reached for comment.

Newsweek's new methodology was developed by a panel of experts that consisted of Wendy Kopp of Teach for America, Tom Vander Ark of Open Education Solutions (formerly executive director for education at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation), and Linda Darling-Hammond, Stanford professor of education and founder of the School Redesign Network.

Their methodology based each school’s score on six components: graduation rate (25%), college matriculation rate (25%), AP tests taken per graduate (25%), average SAT/ACT scores (10%), average AP/IB/AICE scores (10%), and AP courses offered (5%). The scores were then used to rank the schools.

Even though Mira Costa was not ranked on Newsweek's list, it placed at 416 on the Washington Post's ranking of the nation's top 1,900 high schools, with Palos Verdes Peninsula at 305 and Redondo Union at 611.

For the first time, the Post used a "Challenge Index" devised by its columnist Jay Mathews to evaluate high schools nationwide. In previous years, Mathews' index only measured how effectively Washington, DC-area schools prepared students for college. 

The formula for the Challenge Index divides the number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate or other college-level tests a school gave in 2010 by the number of graduating seniors.

According to the Post, "While not a measure of the overall quality of the school, the rating can reveal the level of a high school’s commitment to preparing average students for college."

In April, Forbes Magazine named the Manhattan Beach Unified School District the best school district for median real estate values of $800,000 and up, and sixth overall in the nation.

Forbes worked with GreatSchools to evaluate more than 200,000 public school districts in 17,589 towns in 49 states, excluding Nebraska. The Forbes ranking was based on test scores, such as API and standardized test scores, and the academic progress of randomly selected students.

Mira Costa also was named a California Distinguished School by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson in April, joining 96 other public schools that were recognized.


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