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# Samohi still among cream of crop
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/samohi-still-among-cream-of-crop/
- Published: 2006-05-03T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T17:41:09.000Z
- Author: Kevin Herrera
- Tags: Education, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*Some concern over slip in rankings*

SMMUSD — In a survey measuring how more than 27,000 public high schools in the country prepare their students for college, Santa Monica High ranks 256, putting it in the top 1 percent of the all schools.

Samohi also ranks 30th in the state in the number of students taking advanced placement courses, and is one of only three schools in Los Angeles County to have more than 3,000 students and place in the top 300 on the annual “Challenge Index,” published in the May 8 issue of Newsweek magazine.

While some would see these rankings as cause to celebrate, last year Newsweek had the Vikings ranked higher on the index at 199\. This drop was noted in an e-mail blast to parents earlier this week, who offered different takes on what the new ranking says about student achievement at the campus. While some may see the drop in ranking as a sign that Samohi is falling behind, others preferred to look at the brighter side.

The author of the ranking system and school board members quickly responded to e-mails from parents about the index. The rank-ings, they said, are just one measurement of Samohi’s success and other factors need to be considered before jumping to any conclusions.

They pointed out that Samohi is still among the top 300 public high schools in the country in terms of challenging students to take college-level courses, and the school is also above the national average when it comes to students passing those courses.

“I always tell people not to look at the rankings because almost all schools will drop from year to year as more schools are added,” said Jay Mathews, a contributing editor with Newsweek who developed the index that measures the number of students who take advanced placement tests during their senior year. “Santa Monica still has an extraordinary score that puts it in the top 1 percent of all schools. That is something to be proud of.”

> “I always tell people not to look at the rankings because almost all schools will drop from year to year as more schools are added.” — JAY MATHEWS CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, NEWSWEEK

Some board members called into question the validity of the ranking system and its methodology because it failed to take into account Samohi’s demographics in comparison to other schools, as well as the number of students who passed advanced placement tests.

“The (ranking system) captures the extent of advanced placement courses and exam-taking, but says nothing about the performance on the exams,” school board member Jose Escarce wrote in an e-mail addressed to Samohi parents.

Samohi offers 16 advanced placement courses, and in the last three years, students’ passing rates on advanced placement tests hovered around 73 percent. This is in comparison to a national passing rate of 50 percent for the 16 exams offered at Samohi, Escarce wrote.

“It is worth adding that these performance measures are especially impressive given the dramatic increase during the past few years in the number of Samohi students taking advanced placement courses and exams,” Escarce wrote. “Despite more students taking the exams, the passing rate has risen by 10 percentage points.”

Escarce said Samohi’s ranking “is one piece of good news that should be disseminated by Samohi parents to our entire school community.”

Mathews said he only measures the number of advanced placement tests taken because some schools only allow certain students to take the tests so that they can artificially inflate the passing rates. Mathews said the best way to determine which schools are preparing their students for college is to look at which schools offer the most challenging courses to the most students.

“Studies by U.S. Department of Education senior researcher Clifford Adelman in 1999 and 2005 showed that the best predictor of college graduation was not good high-school grades or test scores, but whether or not a student had an intense academic experience in high school,” Mathews said.

School board member Oscar de la Torre said any drop in the ranking could be seen as a negative, but since researchers from Newsweek only looked at advanced placement scores, and not the wealth of the district or the number of minority students enrolled, he isn’t ready to call a state of emergency. Instead, he believes the debate over the Challenge Index is reason enough for the district to begin collecting results of college entrance exams by former students to see if they are prepared for higher education.

“I think that’s really the only way you are going to be able to make an accurate comparison to other schools,” de la Torre said. “Entrance exams are the true measurement of where students are at in terms of what they need to know to excel at that higher level.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 3, 2006.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/050306.pdf?ref=smdp.com)