Canyon and Villa Park High Schools
Named as Top in Nation and State

ORANGE, CA – July 5, 2016 - Orange Unified School District is proud to announce that Canyon and Villa Park High Schools were both identified as Silver Medal schools in U.S. News & World Report's Best High Schools Rankings, which recognizes the country's top-performing public high schools.

Canyon High ranked in the top 6.4 percent of eligible public high schools in the U.S. and top 10.6 percent in California. Villa Park High followed with a rank in the top 7.9 percent of public high schools nationwide and top 13.4 percent in the state. The graduation rate at each school is 97 percent.

U.S. News ranked schools based on overall performance on state tests, demographics, graduation rate, and scores on college-level Advanced Placement tests or International Baccalaureate tests, which are used to gauge how well each school prepares its students for college. An analysis of data must show that students in all socioeconomic groups perform better than the state average on proficiency tests.

According to their website, “The goal (of U.S. News & World Report's Best High Schools Rankings) is to provide a clear, unbiased picture of how well public schools serve all of their students – from the highest achieving to the lowest achieving – in preparing them to demonstrate proficiency in basic skills as well as readiness for college-level work.”

Of the 28,561 public high schools in the 50 states and the District of Columbia, 19,908 were eligible to be ranked.

More information about the high schools recognized by U.S. News is available online at www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools.