By David Copeland
and Regan Estes
Staff Writers
Mira Costa will reapply for the California Distinguished Schools Award this year after a break period due to the cyclical nature of the application.
The California Distinguished School Award is given to exceptional public schools that show significant progress in narrowing the achievement gap. It is awarded every other year, and Costa earned the award previously.
“It is a reward for the students’ hard work and the hard work of all of our teachers. We were able to apply because we performed above the standard benchmarks for each of the subgroups. Compared to other California Distinguished Schools, we are at the very top,” Mira Costa Principal Ben Dale said.
In order to be eligible for the California Distinguished Schools Program, schools need to attain a certain Adequate Yearly Progress score and have a five-percent increase in “numerically significant subgroups.”
Costa showed a seven percent improvement, including the students with disabilities subgroup, as well as an increase in the Latino subgroup.
“We need to meet the needs of our diverse students. We are an exceptional school at serving our minorities, but there’s always room for improvement,” Vice Principal Jaime Mancilla said.
In addition to the required AYP scores, the Mira Costa administration will write and submit a report to the California Distinguished Schools Program about the two signature practices in which Mira Costa particularly excels.
The two outstanding aspects of Costa outlined in the report are student support, such as the guidance team, counselors, and the College and Career Center, and a culture of excellence, which is an umbrella statement of school achievement.
“Our comprehensive student support is a group of programs with great counselors that go above and beyond what is required of them. All of our counselors are fantastic,” Mancilla said.
English teacher Shawn Chen will write the essay portion of the report, and Dale will fill out the rest. After Chen finishes the essay, an editing council of 25 members, made up mostly of department chairs, will convene to evaluate it.
Once the editing council approves the essay, the administration will conduct a final approval process before it is submitted.
“The faculty met together to collect evidence about our comprehensive signature practices. My job is to write up the faculty findings in order to help them understand how awesome we are,” Chen said.
The California Distinguished Schools Program will be visiting Mira Costa in April to make the final decision on whether or not Costa deserves the California Distigushed School award.
“I think what they will see is exactly what we reported. There is no smoke and mirrors with Mira Costa,” Mancilla said. “There is no need to embellish what our school is all about. I think they are going to leave our school and say to themselves ‘wow.’”
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