Northwood High drops from ranking 389 to 630 in 09

http://www.newsweek.com/id/201160/?s=northwood&q=2009/rank/1

According to Newsweek, Northwood High in Irvine drops 241 spots in ranking in one year.

2008 - ranks 389 nationally
2009 - ranks 630 nationally

What gives? Are the Irvine school's (except for Uni) reputation going down or is there a problem with the way Newsweek is ranking the high schools?

University High remains strong at #158 in '09.
Irvine High at #1088 <- The New Woodbury Collection feeds into this school - dropped from #761 in 2008
Woodbridge at #1418

In other school-rankings... the OCR reports that six OC schools are on the State Dept. of Education's list of the most persistently low-achieving schools in the state. All six are in Santa Ana Unified. The article says, "The 188 selected schools qualified by having the lowest math and English scores in recent years."

http://www.ocregister.com/news/schools-239345-high-state.html

How did I miss this topic?

It should be noted that the top 1500 schools out of 45,000 out there is a significant achievement and puts you in the top 5% of the country. The fact that all 4 of Irvine's high schools made that list should not be dismissed regardless of prior rankings.

I'm not sure how many other cities can make that claim (and I'm talking more than just 1 or 2 high schools in a city) but I would assume that list is short.