The Orange County Register has released its latest rundown of the county’s "best elementary schools" of 2013, with four IUSD campuses making the top 10. Overall, a dozen Irvine elementary sites earned honors with symbolic gold, silver or bronze medals. As we’ve said in previous posts, IUSD generally doesn’t emphasize school rankings, recognizing that each list is limited by its own criteria. In reality, there's so much that goes into building a successful learning environment – from the staff and students to the parents and the level of enrichment – that comparisons tend to be subjective. Yet we would be remiss in not mentioning that Turtle Rock, Stone Creek, Meadow Park and Northwood elementary schools all ranked in the top 10, and there are more medal winners from IUSD. In fact, the Irvine and Los Alamitos districts had the highest concentrations of upper-echelon schools. The Register’s rating system factored in about a dozen statistics related to academics and school environment, with academics carrying most of the weight. K-8 schools including Plaza Vista and Vista Verde were excluded because their data is more difficult to compare. To access the newspaper’s analysis, including a database and an explanation of its methodology, click here.
