【美國中學生】彎曲好學校中的異數：Fremont Mission San Jose High

俺對東灣不熟悉，請筒子們科普一下哈。

MSJ 是個好高中，這是沒有問題的。問題是怎麽在那周圍一片爛學校中突然出來這麽一個超好的學校？想其他好學校，都有一個好“學區”在周圍方圓幾邁的地盤上來支持，如Cupertino, Palo Alto, Saratoga 等等。或像舊金山的 Lowell High, 雖是公立高中，卻是全市人民都可以憑考分進去的。唯有MSJ High,因為Fremont 以前是藍領居住地區，周圍的學校爛得很，近幾年因房價便宜（相對彎曲其他地方），很多亞裔搬入，學校有很大改善。但是MSJ High 早在十年以前就是好學校了。

其中的奧妙是什麽呢？

[laoyangdelp]

回複米湯的評論:excellent reasoning. I'm convinced :-) Are you in education? ;-)

[米湯]

One reason I can think of, some top kids in other districts attend private high school. Alameda county is not known for top independent private schools. So Mission San Jose retains a few more percentage of top students who might have gone to a private high school if they were in south bay (especially Los Altos where the elementary and middle schools are top API rated).

Another observation on API score: Gunn and PA high both have slightly lower score vs Mission San Jose (899, 883 vs 927). However, the larger white subgroup of these two schools actually have higher API score than that of Mission San Jose (909, 894 vs 867). This may tell us that Gunn/PA high schools are more balanced; there are fewer under performing kids in Gunn/PA schools than in Mission San Jose.

I think the similar school ranking is sufficient to differential schools; +- 20 points in API score doesn't really make much difference. Regardless of the API score, what matters is whether a school is a fit for a child. That is why some top district kids still attend private schools.

[laoyangdelp]

回複米湯的評論:
Thanks for the analysis. I heard MSJ was good even before massive Asians moved in. I was wondering about why was it good then.

[米湯]

Since the API score for the white subgroup is about the same (867 vs 870), having 1.5 times more Asian (78% vs 52%) contributed to about 15 API core point difference (927 vs 903). So actually I would say Saratoga High is of a better mix statistically.

[米湯]

The Asian subgroup API score of 2007 is about the same between Mission San Jose High (949) and Saratoga High (943). However, its ratio of subgroup population is much higher (78% vs 52%). Thus Mission San Jose gets higher overall API (927 vs 903). It is hard to say whether the higher ranking school is significantly better.