LTE - School rankings can be misleading

In the run-up to and since the last election, a few loud voices have blamed Superintendent Jason Viloria for Laguna Beach Unified School District’s (LBUSD) decline, citing Laguna Beach High School’s (LBHS) U.S. News rankings drop from 38th in California in 2012 to 211th in 2024 (173 positions). Their claims mislead. This slide, spanning Viloria’s tenure (2016-2024), reflects changes in how rankings are calculated, not local failure.

(Sorry, more math-y-ness)

Post-2019, U.S. News added equity-focused metrics that focus not on absolute performance, but relative performance and equity gaps, favoring schools with more diverse demographics than ours. These equity metrics now comprise 30% of ranking inputs. LBHS, with 12.4% economically disadvantaged students (vs. California’s ~60%), struggles to exceed the exceptional performance expected given our demographics, unlike schools surpassing lower benchmarks.  Demographic conditions have nothing to do with mismanagement.

The emergent charter and magnet schools, like Oxford Academy (#4 in 2024), use selective admissions to attract the brightest kids. These schools dominate the top 50. LBHS, a comprehensive school, can’t match this – a statewide issue.

California’s 2017-18 shift to reporting CAASPP tests via the Dashboard also can be misleading. The metrics measure students scoring above a state-defined benchmark: LBHS’ 51% math and 71% reading proficiency scores place us above the 90th percentile and beat state average proficiency scores of 33% and 47% by a wide margin. These scores have also been stable since state metrics were introduced.

All of Orange County’s comprehensive schools reflect this: Los Alamitos High fell from 24th to 124th (100 positions) and Newport Harbor fell from 35th to 167th (132 positions). Corona del Mar High School dropped from 12th to 199th (187 positions), worse than LBHS’ 173, despite similar demographics (11.9% disadvantaged), undercutting claims of unique failure.

Before last December, I had little school involvement beyond trusting my kids were well-served by teachers and staff. I had no opinion of, nor had given any thought to the superintendent or board. After the chaotic December board meeting, I looked into my assumption that our schools were great and I did my own research. I found our schools were indeed very strong, but – as always – with room to get better.

When magazines change their ranking schemes and Orange County schools in well-off communities drop accordingly, do we blame the former superintendent and board or join with parents, teachers and staff to defend our schools?

Newth Morris (father of three)

Board Member, FUEL

Laguna Beach