All four ABC Unified School District comprehensive high schools were ranked in the top third of all California high schools in the annual ranking by U.S. News and World Reports. Whitney High School was ranked second in the state and first in Los Angeles County. Cerritos High School was ranked 64th, Gahr High Schools ranked 295th, and Artesia High School ranked 746th out of the nearly 2,600 California High Schools.
“It’s amazing to have our high schools recognized for the outstanding education they provide to our students,” said Superintendent Dr. Mary Sieu. “These results speak to the hard work of our administrators, teachers, staff, students, and families.”
Whitney High School not only ranked second in California but 25th nationally. The school, serving grades 7-12, was also ranked 15th nationally for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) high schools. U.S. News gave Whitney High School an overall score of 99.85. The score consists of AP exams – both the percentage of students who take and pass the exam – math proficiency, reading proficiency, and graduation rate. The Whitney High School graduation rate showed 99 percent in the data considered by U.S. News. This percentage was due to a few students who took the California High School Proficiency Exam leaving school early to attend college.
“We are incredibly proud of our high schools for all ranking so high,” said Board of Education President Sophia Tse. “We take pride in the success of our students, which these rankings clearly demonstrate.”
The data used for this year’s ranking by U.S. News Best High Schools are from the 2018-2019 academic school year. U.S. News did not use data from the 2019-2020 school year due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Visit usnews.com for the complete list of high school rankings.
