Schools Selected for Prestigious Honor Roll

Newhall School District announced on October 17, 2007 that Pico Canyon and Stevenson Ranch Elementary Schools have been selected by the California Business for Education Excellence (CBEE) Foundation and Just for the Kids-California (JFTK-CA) as two of 569 public schools in California to receive the title of 2007 Honor Roll school.

Schools receiving this distinction from California’s business community have demonstrated consistent high student academic achievement and have made significant progress toward closing achievement gaps among all their students. The CBEE Foundation/JFTK-CA Honor Roll is made up of two different awards, the Star Schools Award (126 schools) and Scholar Schools Award (443 schools).

 “We are thrilled to have two schools selected as an Honor Roll schools and recognized by California’s business community,” said Dr. Marc Winger, district superintendent. “Our teachers and administrators are committed and have worked tirelessly to ensure the focus is on student academic achievement and reaching grade-level proficiency. We hold all our students, no matter what their background, to the same high standards because we believe they can all reach grade-level proficiency.” 

No other school recognition program in California uses hard data, individual school and student subgroup performance data based on the California Standards Tests to evaluate school academic performance. It is only by looking at this hard data, student test scores, and evaluating students and schools based on grade-level proficiency of the California standards, that educators, parents and the public can thoroughly understand what is happening in our schools and ensure that schools are on track to get all kids to grade level proficiency.

Honor Roll schools are being recognized because they are on track to meet the goal of 100% grade-level proficiency by the 2013/2014 school year as required by federal law.

A full list of the Honor Roll schools, sorted alphabetically by county, can be found at www.cbeefoundation.org.

“We know from the success of these schools that it’s possible for all schools and all students in California to reach high levels of academic achievement, to close achievement gaps and to reach 100 percent grade-level proficiency on the California Standards Test,” said Jim Lanich, Ph.D., president of CBEE. “Every one of the schools on the Honor Roll is on track to do it. By highlighting these schools, recognizing their achievement and giving them a voice we hope other schools can learn from these schools’ proven ‘best practices’ and achieve the same results.”

“Schools on the Honor Roll dispel the myth that certain students can’t reach grade-level proficiency and that schools with a challenging student population won’t be able to succeed,” said Greg Jones, CBEE Foundation Chair. “Instead of complaining about their challenges, these schools have tackled them head on and are overcoming them.  The CBEE Foundation continues to be impressed by the growing number of California public schools that make the Honor Roll each year and that are getting the job done for our students.”

CBEE Star Schools are those with significant populations of socio-economically disadvantaged students that have shown a significant increase in grade-level proficiency over four years for all subgroups.

CBEE Scholar Schools are schools that are showing significant levels of academic achievement, but do not have a significant socio-economically disadvantaged student population.