Although written during the date provided, this article was republished during 2020 by Nicolas Gorman to put it on the website. The author is unknown.

Rio Americano has made the grade on two lists ranking the top high schools in the region and nation.
The school ranked fourth on the Sacramento Business Journal’s list of the most elite public schools in the four-county Sacramento region based on SAT scores. Rio has also been included in Newsweek magazine’s 2012 list of America’s Best High Schools.
According to Newsweek and The Daily Beast, Rio Americano takes 976th place out of the 1,000 best high schools in the United States. No other school the San Juan or Sacramento City school districts made the list, and only a handful of other area schools were included.
Newsweek assessed more than 2,300 schools that provided data to produce the top 1,000 list. Rankings were based on a criteria such as graduation and college-acceptance rates, SAT and ACT exam scores, and participation and performance in Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate classes.
According to the ranking chart, Rio’s graduation rate in 2011 was 89 percent and 93 percent of those graduates attended college.
The school’s 89 percent graduation is–although well above the national average of 75.5 percent–is lower than most schools on Newsweek’s list and a cause for concern for faculty.
Vice Principal Tanya Bringuel says that these numbers are “alarming” and that the school is doing what it can to improve the graduation rate.
“Next year, we’re having common preps for freshmen and sophomores so that the teachers can collaborate,” Bringuel said. “On the district level, they’re doing training for teachers in English 1 and Algebra to improve student success.”
Scoring well above the national average in measures of academic rigor, the school offered 0.4 Advanced Placement classes per student, and AP test takers scored an average of 3.5. (Three is considered passing on the five-point AP scale.) Other area schools on the Newsweek list were Granite Bay, Folsom and Elk Grove.
The Business Journal’s SAT rankings placed Rio just below Da Vinci Charter Academy (Davis) at third, Davis Senior High at second, and Mira Loma at first.
According to the Business Journal report released this month, Rio’s average SAT score is 1706 out of 2400 with 76 percent scoring over 1500.
Mira Loma students scored an average of 1853 out of 2400 with 86 scoring over 1500.
Based on data from the 2009-2010 school year, Mira Loma had 153 students test out of 1629 enrolled, Davis had 415 students test out 1672, Da Vinci Charter, which requires students to apply for admission, had 54 students test out of 469, and Rio Americano had 201 students test out of 1629.
El Camino ranked 19 with an average score of 1600. Of the 171 people testing, 63 percent scored above 1500. Bella Vista took 11th with an average score of 1633 and 67 percent scoring above 1500.