By Diego Marcucci
Staff Writer
The Manhattan Beach Unified School District Board of Trustees announced at its April 22 board meeting that Costa has been distinguished as a Gold Ribbon School by the California Department of Education.
With the transition from Standardized Testing and Reporting to Common Core curriculum this year, the California Distinguished School Award, the previous recognition given to high quality schools, is no longer granted.
The new award for secondary schools is the California Gold Ribbon School, which is given to the schools that successfully implement the academic content and performance standards that the State Board of Education adopted. These include the Common Core State Standards for English, science and mathematics.
“I am very pleased that we qualified for this award and also were able to be recognized as a Gold Ribbon School,” Costa Principal Dr. Ben Dale said.
“This was truly based on schools that have exemplary programs like ours,” MBUSD Superintendent Dr. Michael Matthews said.
During the week of March 22, leaders from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges visited Costa for three days to determine if the school will receive its accreditation. WASC then wrote a report on its observations of the school. According to Matthews, some of that evaluation was used to fulfill criteria for this award, like performance in English, science and mathematics.
“I believe the report is going to be helpful in guiding us over the next six years,” Matthews said.
Manhattan Beach Middle School also received the Gold Ribbon award. The California Department of Education only gave this award to middle and high schools this year. In the 2015-16 school year, recognition will expand to elementary schools.
“I believe it is one more recognition for our excellent schools,” Matthews said.
Leave a Reply