Newsweek Ranks Capo Valley High as One of Nation's Top 500 Schools

Newsweek listed as one the top 500 high schools in the nation this week.

The magazine's panel of experts rated the Mission Viejo campus as the 459th best high school in the U.S., one of only about a dozen Orange County schools to make the cut.

The Newsweek panel included Wendy Kopp of Teach For America, former Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Executive Director Tom Vander Ark of Open Education Solutions, and Stanford professor and School Redesign Network founder Linda Darling-Hammond.

The panel based its rankings on graduation rates, college matriculation, Advance Placement courses offered, SAT and ACT scores as well as AP/IB/AICE scores.

According to Newseek, Capistrano Valley High was noted for its average SAT score (1678), student-teacher ratio (34.5 to 1) and 87 percent graduation rate. The magazine also found that for every student, two AP/IB tests were taken and roughly 95 percent of the school’s seniors were college-bound.

A sampling of Orange County schools that made the grade are listed below. Full results can be viewed at Newsweek.com.

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