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What high school did you attend back in the day? What am I saying; you may be in high school right now? High school is a funny thing. Some folks love it like it’s the highlight of their existence, and other people think it’s terrible. What was your take on the high school years? I am not going to sugar coat it. High school in general was no great thing for me. I wasn’t the all-star jock/prom king, nor was I the zit-faced geek. I was just another student in the madness of confusion. You know how it goes. You’re there five days a week and you’re doing your thing, but it’s more of a mundane routine than anything else. It’s kind of like I was always waiting for something to happen. Something that would make a difference in my lame lifestyle. Then of course it did. It was called graduation. I’m sure many people can relate. Anyway, one thing you have to consider when you send your kids off to high school is the quality. I am referring to the quality of the school’s education system. Did you know that you can check out high schools ranked online?

I like to keep an eye on a certain website that divulges high schools ranked. It’s good to know which high schools are considered ideal, and which ones are falling way behind. I think it’s sad that certain high schools ranked so low as far as standard education goes. You may even be amazed to know which ones are doing well and which ones are lagging behind. I was speaking to my younger brother about this issue and he laughed when I became concerned. He, however, does not have any children. Therefore I seriously doubt he is concerned with high schools ranked good or bad. It’s primarily an issue for parents. The main reason I became so concerned is because I am searching for a different place to live. Now, I don’t just want a nice home in a safe neighborhood. I also want the local high schools ranked well. Think about this for a moment. You surely want your child to get a wonderful education that prepares him/her for college. Furthermore, you want the schools to be safe, and not gang ridden. If you are interested in checking out high schools ranked for yourself, then you may want to hop online. The World-Wide-Web will provide you with all the information you need.

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California high schools range, like most across the nation, from those high in standards to those severely lacking in quality, in tools and materials, and in morale.

But as a community college instructor who taught at-risk students from the California high schools in the summer, I would like to focus on the quality institutions using the same information you can find on a number of websites.

HIGHEST RANKED CALIFORNIA HIGH SCHOOLS

The child left behind policy/program came along long after most of these schools were already reaching high. Such schools are ranked by the California Department of Education, given how they sit on the scale: the 1-10 indicating whether the school is in the top one percent through the top ten percent of all schools in the state. (Such demographics as follows are included in the ranking process: grade level, level of parents education, and number of students getting free or reduced-price lunch [according to greatschools.net].)

Here are some of the highest ranking schools, for example, in the San Mateo and San Francisco County districts:

At 9 are Aragon High School, Burlingame High School, and Carlmont High School.

At 8 is Hillsdale High School, which is in a more upscale neighborhood, by the way.

At 7, in primarily working-class surroundings, are El Camino High School, Capuchino High School, and Half Moon Bay High School.

And at 2, in the heart of San Francisco on Mission Street, is Jefferson High School.

MOST MANAGABLE CLASSROOM SIZED CALIFORNIA HIGH SCHOOLS

Another important criterion in the evaluation of high schools is how small the classrooms remain the teachers clearly able to provide more quality instruction to the more controlled sizes.

Keep in mind that while average size protocol hasnt changed all that much in many years, population changes have impacted the attempts to keep the average number of students per classroom down to between 20-30.

The following averages, then, according to the standards set by and the reports made by the Dept of Education and others, do not account for classes with more than 50 students (lecture classes, for example), classes taught by department chairs, or special education classes (according to CADOE, 2005-06):

With an average of 25 students per classroom, Jefferson might use this stat to account for its high success/ranking. Close behind 27 students per class on average is Hillsdale. Capuchino and El Camino follow with an average of 28 students per classroom. And with 30 per class on average are Carlmont, Half Moon Bay, and Burlingame. Aragon has 31.

CALIFORNIA HIGH SCHOOLS WITH SPECIAL SUPPORTIVE PROGRAMS

Might affordable nourishment also account for highly ranking success?

At Burlingame and Aragon high schools, 2 and 5 percent of the students reportedly participate in the federal free and reduced-price lunch program(s). 8 percent do so at Hillsdale High. Respectively, 13, 14, and 17 percent participate in the program(s) at El Camino, Carlmont, and Capuchino. And 24, 25, and 26 percent receive free or reduced cost lunches at High Tech High, Half Moon Bay, and Baden. And again, Jefferson High sees 44% of the students taking the free or reduced-price lunches.

Other factors are important in the assessing of California high schools, but classroom size reduction, the institution of affordable lunches programs, and the relentless devotion on behalf of parents, teachers, and high school administrators clearly contribute to the student’s successful futures.

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When I was in high school I wrote a very memorable book report. It was about the book Of Mice and Men, a book I hadnt bothered to read before writing the report. I’m not sure what I was thinking, writing a book report on a book I hadn’t read, and since I didn’t know what the story was about I had to get creative.

The book report was to be three pages long, but what I knew about the story, gleamed from the book’s synopsis, would only fill half a page–and that was including a lot of the fluff I’d included to bulk up the report. My grand solution to this dilemma was to include sketches in my book report. I’ll make a disclaimer for you before continuing: I did not do drugs in high school. So I drew my sketches (which I thought were very appropriate, considering the topic. I drew some mice and a few men and then I drew mice and men together) and handed in my report. My English teacher was not amused. In fact, she was so not amused by my outright mockery of her assignment that she asked to see me after class.

I don’t know what came over me to hand in a report so obnoxious. I could’ve spit in my teacher’s face and she would not have been angrier with me. I got yelled at for fifteen minutes after class, and then assigned to detention every day after school for a week. She flunked me on the book report and would not let me make up the grade. She said I had an attitude problem and she was probably right. I never messed around with a book report like that again, and if I ever found myself unprepared to write an essay or report, I just didn’t hand one in rather than mocking the assignment.

A proper book report should have a summary of the book, a discussion about the characters and themes, and then an opinion at the end for the reader’s thoughts. There are ways to get around writing your own genuine report but I wouldn’t advise doing any of them. A decade or two ago, students would use Cliff’s Notes as an alternative to reading the whole book before writing about it. Now there are places online where you can buy a book report and you don’t even have to bother reading the Cliff’s Notes. Either way, it’s a risky game and it’s probably just easier to read the book and then write the report. After all, the book report is probably the easiest written assignment outside of the creative nonfiction essay in any English class.

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