The San Francisco Chronicle has ranked California’s public high schools based on how many more students are accepted into competitive UCs than would be expected at every California public school.
One common yardstick for a California high school is how well it helps students gain admission to the most selective UC campuses. But judging schools by raw admission rates alone can be misleading. Schools that enroll larger shares of students from high-income families and fewer students with disabilities, for example, tend to send more students to UC campuses regardless of school quality.
So the Chronicle’s new ranking asks a more nuanced question: How many more students receive UC admissions than would be expected given a school’s demographics?
(Why are we posting here? The Chronicle has partnered with College Confidential to share reporting from our California College Guide and education coverage. We’re interested in hearing how students and families evaluate high schools — and whether rankings like this are actually useful in the college search process.)
The model accounts for factors like:
-
Family income
-
Percentage of English learners
-
Students with disabilities
-
Other characteristics of the student body
Schools are ranked by how much they outperform those expectations — essentially a value-add measure tied directly to UC admissions outcomes.
Here are the top two schools based on that metric:
#1 Whitney High (Cerritos, Los Angeles County)
Whitney posted 50 more UC admits per 100 seniors than expected.
-
State average: 23 admits per 100 seniors
-
Predicted: 81
-
Actual: 131
Whitney is an admissions-based public high school where students apply and are selected based on academic testing, similar in structure to Lowell High in San Francisco.
#2 Berkeley High (Berkeley)
Berkeley High posted 42 more UC admits per 100 seniors than expected.
-
State average: 23
-
Predicted: 33
-
Actual: 75
Berkeley High is the only public high school in the city of Berkeley. Students spend ninth grade together before moving into smaller learning communities.
Some charter or magnet schools ranked highly, as many might expect. But several comprehensive public high schools across the state also rose to the top.
We’re curious what students and families are seeing:
-
When you search your local high school, are the results what you expected?
-
Do UC admissions outcomes tell you more about a high school than test scores or AP counts?
-
Is “outperforming expectations” a meaningful way to judge school quality?
-
For current applicants: If your school regularly sends a lot of students to UCs, do you feel that helps or hurts your application?
Do you find this ranking more useful than typical admission rates? Use the tool to search any public California high school.
