Good news on top of good news has been rolling out with each succeeding day regarding education:
• Continuing a tradition more than five decades old, the Tucson Citizen honored two outstanding local high school students.
Ali Rawaf, a Desert Christian High School senior, won the 2008 Student Achievement Award. Rawaf is a refugee from Iraq and one of the Citizen’s “My Tucson” columnists.
James Eichberger of Catalina High Magnet School won the 2008 Student-Athlete Award. He had a 3.5 grade-point average and numerous honors in football and track and field.
• Four local high school seniors won Flinn scholarships. The awards went to Alice Cai of Catalina Foothills, Matthew Hom of University, David Ware of Salpointe Catholic and Qian (Jason) Xu of Ironwood Ridge.
The awards are worth $50,000 plus free tuition to an Arizona university.
• Newsweek said BASIS Tucson is the nation’s best public high school.
The survey looked at 26,000 schools and ranked the Tucson charter school tops. The ranking is based on the number of advanced placement tests taken in relation to the number of graduating seniors.
• San Miguel High School graduated all 37 students in its first senior class – and all are headed to college. The school was founded in 2003 to serve low-income families.
Good education news all around.