Conejo high schools to receive awards

Superintendent Mario Contini Three Conejo Valley Unified School District high schools will receive top honors from the state of California at a special ceremony in Anaheim on May 29. Thousand Oaks and Newbury Park high schools will each receive the Career and Technical Education award. Westlake High School will be recognized as a 2009 California Distinguished School.

A state validation team visited Westlake High School, Thousand Oaks High School, Newbury Park High School, and Colina, Redwood and Los Cerritos middle schools.

The team was so impressed with what they saw that it recommended all six schools for the 2009 California Distinguished School recognition.

Based on that recommendation, the state announced all six schools as California Distinguished School winners. However, on April 29 the state posted revised test results that confirmed the eligibility of only one of the schools for that award.

Eligibility requires that schools meet certain state Academic Performance Index (API) and federal Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) target scores for every demographic subgroup. Five of the schools just missed the targets for one or two of the subgroups based on the revised scores. Yet, their scores for several of the other subgroups rose by as much as 101 points.

It was a huge letdown to hear that these outstanding schools lost eligibility after they were told they had won. The state should have verified eligibility in January when it had the accurate test results, not in May after it made its announcement following the validation visits.

The California Department of Education apologized and promised to make major changes in the process that correct the timing of the announcements and place more weight on the validation visits so that the eligibility of outstanding schools isn't dominated by test scores alone.

As a 2009 California Distinguished School Award winner, Westlake High School will receive special recognition for two of the school's signature practices, its collaborative environment and its student support programs.

As Career and Technical Education Award winners, Thousand Oaks and Newbury Park high schools will receive special recognition for developing highly successful school-to-career programs and strong alliances with business and industry. The recommendation by the visiting validation teams of all six of these schools for top honors is was the result of years of hard work on the part of very dedicated and talented people on staff and in the community.

They are all to be congratulated.

Mario Contini is the superintendent of Conejo Valley Unified School District.