The Preuss School, which is jointly chartered by the San Diego Unified School District and the University of California, San Diego, opened in 1999 with 150 students in grades 6 ~ 8. Currently, there are 826 students in grades 6 ~ 12.
The Preuss School students are culturally diverse with 59% Hispanic, 12% African American, 23% Asian/Indo-Chinese and 6% Caucasian.
Preuss students are selected through a process of application and lottery. To be eligible for the lottery, a student must meet three criteria:
- All families must meet the income eligibility criteria as defined by Federal guidelines. You may view these guidelines here.
- The parents or chief guardians are NOT graduates of a four year college or university.
- Student applicants must demonstrate high motivation and potential to attend an academically competitive university or college.
The Preuss School is housed in a $14 million dollar facility on the UCSD campus which is funded entirely by community donors.
Three critical areas are employed based on how to improve education practices:
1) Expanded school year (198 days vs. the
traditional 180 days)
2) Extended school day (7 hours vs. the traditional
6 hours)
3) Smaller class size in all grades (27 students
vs. 34 students district-wide)
Preuss logs 74,669 instructional minutes compared to the State requirement of 64,800.
