The official web site of the Lowell Alumni Association

With the recent release of the 2002 Academic Performance Index (API) scores and other measures of academic health, Lowell remains among the very top-scoring California public schools. With regard to the API, Lowell again recorded a second-place finish statewide with a score of 931, up slightly from last year's 928. API scores range from 200 to 1,000, with the goal being to improve every public school's performance to a score of 800 or better. Among public high schools in San Francisco, only Lowell exceeded the 800 level. The state's highest-scoring school was once again Gretchen Whitney High School in Cerritos, with a score of 964.

Lowell continues to excel in other areas as well. In every component of the 2002 Stanford 9 test (reading, math, language, science and social science), more than 90 percent of Lowell students at each grade level tested above the 50th percentile, including 99 percent of students in math and 98 percent of students in language. Even more impressive is that 90 percent of Lowell students scored above the 75th percentile in math while 85 percent scored over the 75th percentile in language.

Lowell also continues to boast one of the largest Advanced Placement programs in America, with more than 2,000 AP exams administered at Lowell earlier this year - a school record. Advanced Placement coursework helps students show colleges that they have taken as challenging a high school curriculum as possible, thus improving chances for admission to selective colleges. Additionally, students who achieve certain scores on AP exams can receive college credit or advanced standing, thus allowing them either to skip introductory level courses or save tuition.

Although the 2002 rankings have yet to be released, Lowell's AP program has been ranked no lower than 7th nationwide in terms of total exams administered in each of the past three years. Even so, the AP program at Lowell has expanded dramatically in recent years. Just eight years ago Lowell administered more than 1,000 AP exams for the first time, so the program has grown by nearly 9 percent per year since 1994. Currently, Lowell offers almost 40 different Advanced Placement courses that prepare Lowell students to sit for virtually every AP exam offered.

Although test scores and numbers of AP exams administered aren't perfect indicators of the quality of a school's academic programs, they help to remind us that Lowell students continue to perform at a very high level and take full advantage of the many opportunities uniquely available at the oldest public high school west of the Mississippi.