Fifteen California High Schools That Beat the Odds
June 2005

In Confronting the Graduation Rate Crisis—published by The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University on March 24, 2005—the authors look at the low graduation rates for African American, Latino, and Native American students in California. However, according to the report, 15 California high schools, mostly from small districts, are beating the odds and graduating a larger percentage of these students. A list of those schools follows.

School Name	Average Promoting Power(*) (averaged from 2000–2002)
Polytechnic High (Long Beach)	104%
Calexico High (Calexico Unified)	95%
Alhambra High (Alhambra City High)	94%
Northview High (Covina Valley High)	91%
Gabrielino High (San Gabriel High)	90%
32nd St. USC Performing Arts (LA Unified)	88%
Holtville High (Holtville Unified)	87%
Bassett Senior High (Bassett Unified)	87%
Southwest Senior High (Sweetwater Union High)	86%
Jordan High (Long Beach)	85%
Lincoln Senior High (San Diego Unified)	85%
Jurupa Valley High (Jurupa Unified)	85%
Southwest High (Central Union High)	83%
Glenn High–Norwalk (La Mirada Unified)	82%
El Rancho High (El Rancho Unified)	81%

(*) Promoting power refers to successful passage from one grade to the next.

Data: The Civil Rights Project, Harvard University, based on a method developed at Johns Hopkins University
EdSource 6/05

For more information on high school performance in California, see EdSource's report,

Spotlight on California High School Performance