State Superintendent Tony Thurmond Announces 2019 California Distinguished Schools and Exemplary Districts

SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond today announced that 162 middle and high schools are being honored under the 2019 Distinguished Schools Program. Sponsored by the California Department of Education and California Casualty, the program recognizes outstanding education programs and practices. Schools are awarded for achieving exceptional student performance for two consecutive school years or closing the achievement gap between two school years.

The list of recognized schools is attached at the end of this press release.

“I would like to commend these schools for fighting for a better future for our students, closing achievement gaps, and improving academic performance,” Thurmond said. “Thanks to teachers, administrators, classified employees, and parents working together, these schools meet the needs of all of their students, provide high-quality educational experiences, and put kids on a pathway to great careers.”

A component of the California School Recognition Program, the Distinguished Schools program was on a three-year pause while California transitioned to its new assessment and accountability system. From 2015 to 2017, California recognized schools that demonstrated exemplary achievements with the California Gold Ribbon Schools Program. The Distinguished Schools program returned last year. It recognizes elementary and middle and high schools in alternate years and allows eligible schools to apply once every two years. Schools recognized as awardees hold the title for two years.

Schools that applied were eligible based on their performance and progress on the state indicators as described on the California School Dashboard. Indicators include test scores, suspension rates, and graduation rates. Schools were also eligible to apply for a California Exemplary Program Award in Arts Education, Physical Activity and Nutrition Education, or Career Technical Education—which will be announced at a later time.

Distinguished School award winners represent examples of not just excellent teaching, learning, and collaboration, but also highly successful school climate efforts ranging from real-time conflict resolution to positive behavior intervention. Some examples of this year’s honorees are:

Downtown Business High School, Los Angeles Unified School District

Downtown Business High School, an urban school in downtown Los Angeles, is a school serving about 1,000 students, with 80 percent of those living at or below the poverty line. Yet the school maintains some of the highest test scores in the district: 69–80 percent proficiency in mathematics and 85–98 percent English Language Arts proficiency rates over the last four years. It practices an “Opportunity for All” program to target absenteeism and close the achievement gap, especially for black and Latino students. The school implements a “Building Blocks” program, a system of monitoring starting in the ninth grade, to create supports and benchmarks to assist struggling students. For students struggling with attendance, the school reviews attendance data and provides a system of positive supports through counselor, coordinator, teacher, and parent involvement. In 2018, 100 percent of black and African American eleventh graders achieved a “nearly met,” “standard met” or “standard exceeded” score for both math and English on the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASSP) assessment. Students with Ds and Fs shrunk from 500 to 424 this year, a decrease of approximately 16 percent. Schoolwide attendance rates have grown 1–2 percent annually for the last two years, and more than 90 percent of parents indicate they feel the school is emotionally and physically safe for their children, according to the School Accountability Report Card.

Union Middle School, Union Elementary School District

Located in San Jose, Union Middle School adopted a collaborative model of instruction in 2006 to help close the achievement gap for its special education students. Students are placed in services, courses, and interventions based on the results of common pre-assessments that indicate when and where additional support is necessary. Every effort is made to guarantee that schedules and services remain flexible enough to change as students’ needs change. Over the past 14 years, a number of students with disabilities are now enrolled in collaborative classrooms—classes with standards-based curriculum taught by a highly qualified teacher that result in their higher achievement, often paired with the support of an instructional aide or special education teacher. Within the first five years of the collaborative model, the school saw an increasing number of students prepared to mainstream into grade-level instruction.

Grossmont High School, Grossmont Union High School District

Located in El Cajon, a suburban area in San Diego, Grossmont High School implemented a social and emotional learning program to support the needs of students through leadership, celebrations, rituals, traditions, and emotional learning. To better support social and emotional learning, the school established behavioral interventions such as a time-out reflection room that provides an immediate consequence combined with a reflection on problem behaviors. As an alternative intervention to detention or a referral, students can be sent to this room by a teacher to reflect on their behavior. Twice a week, the school also teaches emotional intelligence, dealing with how to recognize, understand, label, express, and regulate emotions—with the goal of gaining confidence that will cross over to their academics, which will then result in overall student improvement. The results for Grossmont High School over the past three years from the California Healthy Kids Survey—School Climate Report Card show that the efforts are making a difference on campus. The school climate index has increased over the past three years with a score of 343 in 2017, 332 in 2018, and 356 in 2019. Scores on this survey also showed a lowering of violence, substance abuse, harassment, and bullying. Intervention referrals received by staff and counselors have also increased over time, as well as those connected to therapeutic services and participation in support groups.

Mammoth Middle, Mammoth Unified

Located in the rural Eastern Sierra Nevada mountain range, Mammoth Middle school serves just 306 students, 58 percent of whom are classified as socioeconomically disadvantaged, with 12 percent also classified as English Learners. Using a Focused Schools program that began three years ago, the school studied CAASPP and district benchmark data to identify the gaps and had staff create an instructional focus statement. One main goal in the first year was for students to show growth in their ability to read actively and think critically. Students created their kid-friendly version of the focus, which was called “Read Actively, Think Critically, and Strive to Grow.” The school had poster contests, and student winners had their displays in all the classrooms and in the main office. In a later year, the school focused on parent and community engagement. Last year in CAASPP, English Language Arts results increased by 25.1 points, which is seven points above standard. In mathematics results, the school increased overall by 16.4 points but is still 16.1 points below standard. According to the California School Dashboard, the school is still steadily closing the achievement gap and raising performance levels for all students.

Los Molinos High School, Los Molinos High School District

Located in rural Tehama County, Los Molinos High School is serving 60 percent socioeconomically disadvantaged students, and about half of the students are Hispanic or Latino. It meets the educational needs of students by promoting technology, academic excellence, and career technical education. The high school has implemented a Google Chromebook program to facilitate the use of Google Classroom and daily use of technology by every student. This streamlined and easy-to-use tool makes giving out assignments, editing writing, giving feedback, and general communication with students easy. Students may take advantage of dual enrollment with Shasta College, taking online courses or participating in site-facilitated college courses. Parents have access to their student’s attendance as well as grade books. They also have access to curriculum through their student’s Google Classrooms and teacher web pages. Both math and English CAASSP scores increased by 10 percentage points in 2017–18. In addition, the math teachers held a math camp for students whose data analysis showed a specific need in segments of the curriculum.

In addition to Distinguished Schools, California will recognize exemplary districts that have made a positive impact on student outcomes. These schools and districts, California Exemplary Arts Education Schools, California Exemplary Physical Activity and Nutrition Education Schools, California Exemplary Career Technical Education Schools, California Green Ribbon Schools, Civic Learning Award Schools, Model Continuation High Schools, National Blue Ribbon Schools, and National ESEA Distinguished Schools all will be honored in April during a ceremony at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim. For more information, please visit the California Distinguished Schools Program on the California Department of Education’s website.

2019 California Distinguished Schools

2019 California Exemplary Districts

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Tony Thurmond — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Communications Division, Room 5602, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100