CALABASAS HIGH SCHOOL IN LAS VIRGENES UNIFIED SCHOOL
DISTRICT recognized by california business community for high
student academic achievement and closing achievement gaps
Schools Selected by California Business for Education Excellence for Prestigious Honor Roll
DATELINE (Calabasas, CA) – Las Virgenes Unified School District announced today that Calabasas High School has been selected by California Business for Education Excellence (CBEE) as one of 1,304 public schools in California to receive the title of 2009 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 Honor Roll is made up of two different awards, the Star Schools Award (395 schools) and Scholar Schools Award (909 schools).
“We are extremely proud to receive this recognition, an outward acknowledgement of the high standards set by our district, staff, community, parents and students. By numerous measures CHS is a stellar school and great place to work and attend school”, said CJ Foss, Principal of Calabasas High School. “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 meet them.”
No other school recognition program in California uses hard data, individual school and student subgroup performance data based on the California Standards Tests and the California High School Exit Exam, 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.
Over the past four years, the Honor Roll list has grown from 304 schools in 2006 to the current 1,304 for 2009. A full list of the Honor Roll schools, sorted alphabetically by county, can be found at www.cbee.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 and to close achievement gaps,” said Kirk Clark, executive director of CBEE. “By highlighting Honor Roll 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 Chair. “These schools are overcoming challenges every day. What has impressed the business community the most this year is the large increase in the nearly 400 high-poverty schools that are exceeding expectations.”
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.
California Business for Education Excellence
The mission of California Business for Education Excellence (www.cbee.org) is to raise student academic achievement and close achievement gaps in California public schools by ensuring every student reaches a minimum of grade level proficiency. This is accomplished by providing a voice to high performing, high poverty public schools so that all schools can replicate their best practices. Since 1998, CBEE has worked to focus businesses around a common agenda for better public schools and serves as the business community’s leading voice in education.
