SAN GABRIEL, CA – Five San Gabriel Unified schools were named to the Campaign for Business and Education Excellence (CBEE) 2016 Honor Roll for narrowing the achievement gap and for performing strongly on California standardized tests.

Coolidge Elementary, McKinley Elementary, Washington Elementary, Wilson Elementary and Jefferson Middle schools were honored as Star Schools, a category for high-performing schools with substantial populations of socioeconomically disadvantaged students.

Every San Gabriel Unified Star School showed strong improvements in English language arts scores for English learners and socioeconomically disadvantaged students.

Four of the five schools also showed increased math scores among both student populations, with English language arts score improvements topping 20 percent among English learners.

“San Gabriel Unified strives to provide the best academic support possible to all students, regardless of their background, and to inspire opportunities for growth every year,” SGUSD Superintendent Dr. John Pappalardo said. “We are proud to receive Honor Roll designations for five of our outstanding schools.”

The Honor Roll is created for CBEE by the Educational Results Partnership (ERP), which analyzes 12 measures taken from California Department of Education data, including performance on state math, English language arts and science standardized tests. ERP looks at equity among students with differing ethnic backgrounds and socioeconomic statuses.

“We’re proud to have our students and schools recognized for such a major achievement,” SGUSD Board President Andrew Ammon said. “Congratulations to our students for their hard work and to our teachers and staff for their dedication to inspiring continued academic excellence.”