Two Santa Clarita junior high and three high schools with the William S. Hart Union High School District were named Gold Ribbon Schools Tuesday.
Hart District schools that received the award include: Rancho Pico Junior High School, Sierra Vista Junior High School, Canyon High School, Golden Valley High School and Hart High School.
The Gold Ribbon School Award Program recognizes schools that have “made gains in implementing academic content and performance standards adopted by the State Board of Education,” including English Language Arts and Mathematics, English Language Development and the Next Generation Science Standards.
It also honors schools that have standards of excellent teaching, learning and collaboration as well as successful school climate efforts.
“These awards reflect the high level of professionalism our teachers and administrators have for education. They are constantly working creatively together to give every student the opportunity to have an excellent education,” Hart District Superintendent Vicki Engbrecht said in a statement. “And these awards also say something about our community because if it wasn’t for outstanding parental involvement, our schools, and more importantly our students, wouldn’t be as successful as they are.”
The awards program is in place of the California Distinguished Schools Program, which is on hiatus while California develops its new assessment, accountability and continuous improvement systems.
In its two years, the Gold Ribbon School Award Program has honored 193 middle schools, 180 high schools and 780 elementary schools.
This year, a total of 275 middle schools and high schools were named Gold Ribbon School Award winners by the California Department of Education and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson.
“These terrific schools are leading the way in embracing out new rigorous academic standards and showing others how to help students succeed on their way to 21st century careers and college,” Torlakson said in a statement. “I look forward to traveling the state to honor these schools and to help share the programs methods and techniques that are working.”
To earn the Gold Ribbon Awards, schools must detail a “model program or practice their school has adopted that includes standards-based activities, projects, strategies and practices that can be replicated by other local educational agencies,” according to the California Department of Education.
The 275 schools that earned the 2017 Gold Ribbon Award will be honored in May during regional ceremonies held in Costa Mesa, Santa Clara, Los Angeles, Visalia and Sacramento.
The accomplishment is an impressive one for the Hart District who had only one school, Saugus High School, receive the recognition with 193 middle schools and 179 other high schools in 2015.
In 2016, the California Department of Education honored elementary schools with the Gold Ribbon Award. Fourteen schools within the Saugus Union School District received the recognition.
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