State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond has announced the 323 elementary schools that are being honored under the 2020 California Distinguished Schools Award Program. Sponsored by the California Department of Education and presented by California Casualty, the program recognizes outstanding education programs and practices that closing the achievement gap and achieve exceptional student performance. The schools will be honored during a Feb. 10 ceremony at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim. “These outstanding schools don’t just educate students; they also provide the young people of California the tools they need to be successful after graduation,” Thurmond said. “Thanks go to all the staff at these schools—teachers, administrators, classified employees—and parents, who are working together to provide high-quality educational experiences for all of their students.” A component of the California School Recognition Program, the Distinguished Schools program recognizes schools based on performance and progress on the state indicators as specified on the California School Dashboard. Indicators include test scores, suspension rates, and conditions and climate. Elementary schools and middle and high schools are recognized in alternate years; therefore, awardees hold the title for two years. Distinguished School awardees 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 the incredible work done by this year’s awardees include: Maryland Avenue Elementary in La Mesa-Spring Valley School District This school built growth through its “3Cs” Program: Collaboration, Commitment, and Community. Over the last three years, three teams — the Leadership Team, Intervention Team and Teacher Collaborative Team — worked interdependently to analyze data and improve student outcomes. In addition to improved CAASPP scores, the school moved 22 students from special day classes to a Specialized Academic Instruction program, a less restrictive environment that gives them greater access to the rigor of grade-level standards and instruction. James K. Polk Elementary in Central Unified School District  This school in rural Fresno, with a student body that includes 69 percent socioeconomically disadvantaged students, focused on improving its literacy rates. It did so via daily classroom support, and pull-out support into a small group setting. Paraprofessionals provide additional support to grade one classroom teachers who meet with students that have a similar strategic literacy need daily.  Schoolwide, the number of students meeting or exceeding standards in English Language Arts (ELA) has grown from 49.4 percent to 51.5 percent over the last three years.  Jefferson Elementary in Compton Unified School District  This school has for the past few years focused on a practice they call STEAM Integration and Innovation for All in order to engage students’ creativity. Through this practice, all students regardless of socioeconomic background, language proficiency, or academic level are exposed to creative technology, coding, computer science, art, innovation and music. Through various parent engagement activities, parent participation has doubled during the last three years as indicated in parent surveys, activities, and workshop participation. In the last three years, students made academic growth in both ELA and math by increasing CAASPP proficiency rates from 50 percent to 59 percent in ELA and from 48 percent to 58 percent in math. Cleveland Elementary in Oakland Unified School District  This school serves the very diverse and historically underserved city of Oakland. With a student body from varied backgrounds, the school came together to identify that they wanted to build a community around the shared values of inclusiveness and responsibility. They also specifically focused on the academic achievement and feelings of connectedness of African American students, language learners, and students with disabilities.  A School Culture Team and Instructional Leadership Team worked on professional development to support improved outcomes. Due to years of this work, school culture data show a decrease from 127 incidents referred to the office in 2014–15 down to 73 in 2018–19. Kirkwood Elementary in Kirkwood ESD  This school in rural Tehama County serves a small student body that is 58 percent socioeconomically disadvantaged and a parent body with varying levels of comfort with technology. In response, Kirkwood Elementary has created multiple ways for parents to access school information — including voicemail, email, physical newsletters, websites, and even teachers outside the school greeting parents at the end of the day. More than 75 percent of families volunteered in classrooms, 81 percent of families attended STEAM Night, and 100 percent of parents attended conferences. The district went from only 36 percent of students meeting ELA standards in 2015 to 65 percent of students meeting ELA standards in 2018.