Manhattan Beach’s Mira Costa High School ranks in the top 2 percent of some 21,000 public high schools nationwide for college readiness, according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2013 Best High School rankings released last week.
Placing 417th nationally and 81st in California, Mira Costa was among 500 top-performing high schools in the country to earn a gold medal.
According to U.S. News, these rankings were based on data from the 2010-2011 academic year. The analysis evaluated student performance on state exit exams and internationally available tests on college-level coursework, such as Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) exams, in addition to overall performance of the school’s minority and disadvantaged students.
In 2010-2011, 58 percent of Mira Costa students took at least one AP exam, with 78 percent achieving a passing grade.
