Honors level classes.

Advanced Placement [AP] courses.

International Baccalaureate [IB] pathway. 

These are among the options Sunny Hills offers its students who seek rigorous, academic assignments in hopes of preparing them for college-level work.

And it’s because of students’ continued interest in such coursework that has kept Sunny Hills ranked among the Top 1,000 schools nationwide for a fifth consecutive year, according to the U.S. News & World Report.

For the 2024-2025 school year, the campus also saw growth, finishing at 740 out of 17,660 schools compared to the previous school year at 923. It also is ranked 98th in California compared with its prior position at 137.

Compared with the other high schools in the Fullerton Joint Union High School District, Sunny Hills tops all but Troy, which came in at 239th place in national rankings and ended 30th in California rankings. 

“I think [the improved ranking is] great as our students have worked hard in all of their studies across different subjects,” principal Craig Weinreich said. “Our improvement is a testament to our students and all the things that they have been able to accomplish.”

According to an April 22, 2024, post from usnews.com, the index was based on 2023-2024 school year AP and IB exam rates, graduation rates, performance on state-required tests and basic information, including enrollment, student ethnicity and other profile information. The 2024-2025 rankings were released Wednesday, Sept. 25.

Sunny Hills increased its performance metrics over recent years, according to usnews.com. Based on the 2020-2021, 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 academic school years, the school boosted its college readiness score from 55.2 to 57.7 out of 100. Additionally, its overall score rose from 94.78 to 95.81 out of 100.

“The goal is to provide a clear, unbiased picture of how well public schools serve all of their students,” according to a news release from U.S. News & World Report. “The methodology for identifying the top-ranked Best High Schools was developed with a core principle in mind: The top schools must serve all students well and must produce measurable academic outcomes that support this mission.”

Weinreich acknowledged the positive changes teachers saw in their students’ test scores.

“We did very well on our AP scores last year, and we’ve been trying to allow more students to take AP tests and classes to challenge themselves and prepare for college better,” the principal said. “I think some of that access has been helpful for students, which is what we’re aiming for.”

Junior Terah Nohl said she did not know about the rank increase but feels proud to be a part of the student body at Sunny Hills.

“I think our rank increase is justified because of collectively high amounts of academics that happen at this school,” said Nohl, who got 5s on AP Human Geography and AP European History. “But it is kind of sad how out of sight this was because our rank increasing shows how well we are doing, and I think our efforts should be appreciated with some sort of celebration or at the very least, an announcement.”

Senior Anthony Mitri, who also did not know about the rank increase, said although the increase in rankings was justified, he was surprised that Sunny Hills was a Top 1,000 school in the nation.

“Having taken lots of AP classes and scoring 5s or higher, I’ve met lots of the students that fueled this rating, and I’d say this ranking does reflect student expectations as our school has lots of hard-working talent,” Mitri said. “Coming from the Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District, I see the stark difference in academics between the two campuses.

“No shade to Norwalk-La Mirada, but academics are just done on a whole other scale here.”

According to usnews.com, the rankings serve solely as a resource to showcase school performance, offering no benefits other than reputation. 

Weinreich said he appreciates students’ work to produce passing test scores though nothing is planned to recognize their efforts.

“However, we’re definitely looking for ways to do those types of celebrations [in the future] and make sure people are aware,” he said.