BUSD Superintendent
The U.S. News and World Report published its annual best high schools rankings on Tuesday and the Burbank Unified School District made the grade with both of its high schools among the top 500 in the state.
Out of 2,598 qualifying California high schools rated by the publication, John Burroughs High ranked No. 320 with a scorecard of 87.69. Burbank High was No. 417 with a score of 84.9.
“Our students, our teachers and our employees are doing amazing work in each of our schools,” BUSD Superintendent Matt Hill told the Leader on Thursday. “It is great to get that recognition, but we don’t focus on the awards. We focus on delivering amazing instruction, and awards come from that.”
Burroughs, which was ranked No. 142 out of 659 qualifying schools in Los Angeles, boasts a high graduation rate of 97% and the students’ performances on state-required exams are well above the state average. Sixty-seven percent of students were proficient in reading but only 44% showed competency in math. The state average for proficiency in math is 30% and 50% in reading.
In the U.S. News’ overall student performance, Burroughs students were in the 76.3 percentile in state-required tests and in the 90.6 percentile on college-level exams such as AP tests.
At Burbank High School, 68% of students were proficient in reading and 44% showed proficiency in mathematics. The U.S. News reports BHS matches expectations in overall pupil performance with students in the 75.6 percentile on state-required tests and 84.9 percentile on college level exams.
Though Hill is grateful to have BUSD schools recognized, he said there’s more work to be done, especially in these times as schools throughout the state begin to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our students learned a lot during the pandemic but there’s also some opportunities they missed out on because they weren’t in-person,” he said. “We’re going to continue to do assessments the rest of the year and build on that over the summer so we’re ready for the fall.”
