San Leandro High Doesn't Make The Grade

San Leandro High School was surveyed but not ranked by U.S. News & World Report, which recently published an analysis of high schools nationwide.

The magazine's survey of San Leandro High provided details such as:

1. 39 percent of students are Hispanic
2. 27 percent are Asian
3. 19 percent are black
4. 13 percent are white
5. 46 percent of students are economically disadvantaged
6. The school has a state test performance index of 703 (800 is the goal)

School supporters say rankings don't tell the whole story and argue that San Leandro High works hard to connect with its diverse student body.

Wednesday afternoon, sophomores Xiaosong Zhu and Sarah Scott were hanging out in the classroom of math teacher Phil Myers. He tried to make a recent geometry class less abstract by taking students outside to measure the height of the pirate on campus using angles and a string.

"We had a nice long class and it seemed better than sitting inside," he told Patch.

But it's difficult for San Leandro to compete with better-off suburban rivals.

For instance the survey ranked Dublin High fourth in California and 12th nationwide. Looking at these same indicators at that school:

1. 44 percent of students are white
2. 25 percent are Asian
3. 15 percent are Hispanic
4. 9 percent are black
5. 27 percent are economically disadvantaged
6. The school has a state text performance index of 867

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