School ranks among top 6 percent of high schools for 7th consecutive year

Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD) announced that Marshall Fundamental School has been named one of Newsweek magazine’s Top Public High Schools for the seventh consecutive year. Every year, the list is compiled by Washington Post education columnist Jay Mathews, and includes only the top six percent of high schools nationwide.

Marshall’s overall rank improved five points to 152. The school also improved its performance on the "Equity and Excellence" or E&E scale, which measures the quality and accessibility of a school’s Advanced Placement (AP) program. Marshall's E&E rate moved from 34 percent in 2008 to 43 percent in 2009.

"Marshall Fundamental continues to provide a high-quality, challenging academic program that accelerates learning," said Superintendent Diaz. "It is gratifying to see Marshall compete favorably with schools from surrounding districts as well as nationwide. This should reinforce the community’s confidence in the strong programs PUSD schools offer to prepare our high school students for success in college and careers."

Newsweek evaluates the overall academic quality of public schools by dividing the number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and Cambridge exams by the number of graduating seniors in a given class. The resulting number is used to rank all schools that have achieved a ratio of at least 1.000, which represents the top 6 percent of schools nationwide. The E&E rate represents the percentage of graduating seniors who scored a 3 or above on at least one AP test during their high school career.

"The improvement in the E&E rate is the statistic we are most proud of," said Marshall Principal Keith Derrick. "This means that 43 percent of our seniors passed at least one AP exam, which is quite impressive, especially when you consider that the national average is only 15.2 percent."