As the class of 2007 prepares to graduate today, June 28, Newsweek magazine has named the Preuss School at UC San Diego one of the top ten public high schools in the U.S. The rating system, based on the number of students in grades nine through 12 enrolled in college-level courses, ranked Preuss ninth in the nation, making this UCSD charter school the only California high school to rank in the top 25.
Newsweek evaluated schools based on the number of students taking Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and other courses taught at an accelerated level, dividing that number by the number of seniors in each school’s graduating class. Preuss administers more than 700 AP examinations yearly to over 350 high school students according to Doris Alvarez, Preuss School Principal.
“The goal of Preuss is to prepare students for college, and to make sure they are competitively eligible for the university,” Alvarez said.
Therefore, students’ transcripts must “show a rigorous course of study, and AP and IB are the most rigorous courses.”
Preuss is a middle and high school chartered jointly by the University of California and the San Diego School District. Preuss provides low-income students whose parents have not graduated from a four-year college with a comprehensive college-prep education by requiring all students to take AP courses, according to Pat JaCoby, communications coordinator at UCSD News.
Preuss offers AP courses spanning all disciplines, including Spanish language and literature, English language, U.S. government, U.S. history, chemistry and biology.
Referring to the success of the program, JaCoby said that some students “may not all have the best grades in the world when they get [to Preuss], but they do when they graduate.”
The Preuss School commencement will take place at 4 p.m. today, June 28, at UCSD’s Manchester Field.