Two Bay Area schools
make Newsweek top 100 list

By Jason Bennert, Bay City News Service

May 4, 2006

Two Bay Area high schools, San Francisco's Lowell and Palo Alto's Gunn, have been included on Newsweek's list of the nation's top 100 high schools.

This list is included in the magazine's issue on newsstands this week. Lowell is ranked no. 26 and Gunn is ranked no. 78. California has a total of six schools on the list with the highest ranked being 14th-ranked Eastern Sierra Academy, a school with fewer than 30 students located near Mono Lake.

Lowell has previously been excluded from the list because it is a magnet school that admits the majority of its students based on high academic achievement but Newsweek changed the criteria this year allowing some magnet schools on the list.

"As a former graduate of Lowell, I can attest to its outstanding staff, strong curriculum and high academic standards. We are tremendously proud of its legacy of excellence and it is especially fitting that this recognition comes at a time when Lowell is celebrating its 150th anniversary," San Francisco Unified School District Interim Superintendent Gwen Chan said in a statement.

Gunn has been on the list since Newsweek began it in 1998, according to Gunn Principal Noreen Likins.

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