U.S. News and World Report

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — A Downtown charter school is country's 53rd-best high school, according to this year's U.S. News and World Report rankings. Oscar De La Hoya Animo Charter High School serves students from across the river in Boyle Heights, but is located in the World Trade Center at 3rd and Figueroa.

The issue, dated December 15 - 22, ranks schools based on a formula that looked at 2006-2007 data. The methodology included a look at how disadvantaged students performed at each school relative to their performance state-wide. That metric helps a school like ODLH, where 96.7% of the students are considered disadvantaged.

The school's only Downtown for a few more months. They're building a campus on Lorena street in Boyle Heights, and hoping to move out of their World Trade Center space by the fall. Green Dot, the charter school group that operates ODLH, is headquartered in the World Trade Center.

This is a particularly fun story for me, since my wife teaches 9th grade at ODLH. She's in her third year at the school.