Summit Prep Ranked Top 10 Most Transformative Schools in Nation

Despite severe budget cuts to all schools across the country, many are doing more than staying afloat. With dedicated faculty, engaging curricula and motivated students, Redwood City and San Mateo County schools are ranking in the top schools.

Newsweek released its list of America’s Best High Schools for 2011. Summit Prep was ranked one of the Top 10 Most Transformative Schools in the country. It received national spotlight as one of five schools featured in the acclaimed film “Waiting for Superman,” which showcased the merits of charter schools.

“We’re enrolling kids through a lottery system, and no matter where they start, we get them all to a similar success point,” Dickson said.

Summit Prep boasts a near 99 percent graduation rate and 96 percent are accepted to one or more, four-year colleges or universities. All students apply to four-year colleges and universities, compared with only 40 percent statewide.

Brian Johnson, a teacher for four years at Summit Prep, said that faculty spends extra time with the students who need more help to ensure that they can also be just as successful as their peers. Teachers hold office hours and are available outside the designated classroom time as well.

He said the curriculum is differentiated so class activities and homework exercises are challenging to all the students.

Johnson added that the collaboration amongst students and emphasis on group work were tantamount to instilling values that could only be taught by experience.

“We’re teaching them how to be teachers to each other, rather than just letting them copy each other’s homework.” Johnson said.

Johnson highlighted the small class size as crucial to really getting to know the students. Summit Prep has a maximum class size of 25.

“Simply, we design a school that sets teachers up for success,” said Summit’s Executive Director Todd Dickson. “The result is that we get unbelievable teachers.”

Johnson added: “We’re involved in all decisions in the school, which really empowers us," Johnson said. "We’re more than responsible for a classroom, but the entire school’s success.”

Dickson said that there are very talented and capable teachers in public school systems, but they are often “stymied by systems that are too big and have been doing the same things for too long.”

In another Newsweek ranking, Summit Prep was ranked the 132nd best school in America, the top 1 percent of schools. However, Summit Prep was ranked 77th in 2010.

Dickson explained that the decline was due to the new methodology used to rank the schools. Compared to one data point used in 2010, the 2011 list uses a mix of six criteria to rank the schools:

1. Graduation rate (25%)
2. College matriculation rate (25%)
3. AP tests taken per graduate (25%)
4. Average SAT/ACT scores (10%)
5. Average AP/IB/AICE scores (10%)
6. AP courses offered (5%)

Newsweek pulled together three education experts to create the ranking methodology: Wendy Kopp of Teach For America, Tom Vander Ark of Open Education Solutions (formerly executive director for education at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation), and Linda Darling-Hammond, Stanford professor of education and founder of the School Redesign Network

“All data can be helpful,” Dickson said of school rankings in general. “But we have to remember that it’s just a single piece of data.”

Other schools in San Mateo County that ranked in the top 250 schools were Hillsdale High School (#225) in San Mateo and Mills High School (#244) in Millbrae.

and Woodside High School were ranked in the America’s top 1600 schools in 2010 and 2009, the nation’s top 6 percent schools. However, they were not ranked this year because Newsweek only ranked the top 500 schools.

Sequoia High School was #1273 in 2010 and #916 in 2009. Woodside High School was #1173 in 2010 and #1129 in 2009. The criteria in the past few years incorporated these criteria to measure a school’s rank:

• Index: Ratio of AP, IB, or Cambridge tests taken to number of graduating seniors
• Subsidized Lunch: % of students eligible for subsidized lunches because of low family income
• E&E: Equity & Excellence – the % of seniors who passed an AP or IB exam

Updated at 10:30 a.m. with Brian Johnson's comments.