U.S. News and World Report recently released its annual list of the Best High Schools in the United States, and La Cañada High School earned the No. 8 spot in the Los Angeles area, the 22nd in California, and 172nd nationwide, reflecting increases from previous years.
As reported in 2022 by the Outlook Valley Sun, LCHS ranked No. 11 in the Los Angeles area, 29th in California and 227th nationwide.
Inclusion on this list — a ranking of about 18,000 public high schools nationwide — is based on multiple objective data points, such as college readiness, the number of Advanced Placement course offerings, performance on state assessments and graduation rates. The ranking by U.S. News and World Report is based on a total enrollment at LCHS of 1,368 students, highlighting the school’s 99% graduation rate, and that 76% of students passed at least one Advanced Placement exam.
The rankings this year for math, reading and science proficiency kept the same score as last year’s results, with 89% for reading proficiency, followed by 81% in math and 69% in science proficiency.
LCHS also ranked higher than some surrounding public high schools, with San Marino High School coming in at 16th in the Los Angeles area, 45th in California and 322nd nationally. The same can be said for Crescenta Valley High School, which ranked 79th in the Los Angeles area, 179th in California and the 1,141 spot nationally.
La Cañada High School students were also in the 98.8 percentile on the smarter balanced score, which is considered well above expectations and measures overall student performance on state-required tests, which is the same ranking in last year’s report for the high school.
“LCUSD is proud of all of its incredible schools and talented and dedicated teachers and staff, but [the] news from U.S. News and World Report definitely merits a shout out to LCHS 9-12,” Superintendent Wendy Sinnette announced to LCUSD faculty and staff. “This report is one measure, and we look at many to assess our progress, but it gets a national audience and deserves a heartfelt congratulations to LCHS 9-12.”
More details can be found at usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/california/districts/la-canada-unified-school-district/la-canada-high-school-2421.
First published in the September 7 print issue of the Outlook Valley Sun.
